Impulsive decisions: Survival of the fittest
by Zanka no Tachi 31
Summary: An SI. I know... Death? The end? ...Not likely. I was here after all. Stable family, stable life...I think? Should be dead, almost did die...again. In retrospect I should have expected something like this to happen. Wake up in a new body, live your new life, not all is as it seems, though, when you end up in a crossover, things start to get a little strange.
1. CH 1: Prepare yourself

**An SI of my own. Read a few and thought, hey, why not? Plus, hey, people who read my stuff, miss me?**

**This will be a multi-crossover eventually spanning over a few 'books' featuring multiple series and franchises I consider to be my favourites while trying to maintain as much plausibility as possible between them and providing hopefully sufficient explanations as to how things work in the modified universe.**

**Chapter one: Prepare yourself**

* * *

If I were to think off the first time that something seemed off in my new existence as a reincarnated child it would be the time I saw a ghost. It seemed startlingly familiar too. Of course, at the time I didn't exactly see the chain hanging out of its chest or the fact that it was the baker that lived in the village, no I was more transfixed on the horrifying fact that he had his neck jutting out at an odd angle with chunks of bone and sinew revealing themselves through the tear in his back.

It turned out Mr Guzevski had been hit by a car that morning by a robbery get away van going at approximately a hundred kilometres an hour. The resulting carnage revealed that a hand of his had ended up in one of the florists flower pots and had to be closed for the day for police inspection as well as clean up.

Unfortunately the perpetrators of the crime were never found but that is neither here nor there since the gruesome act seemed to seal the deal for my parents as they didn't want me to be around such a sketchy neighbourhood anymore with their five year old son. The region was known after all for a lot of murders within the past two years. Said deal my parents were taking was a job offer that my new dad had received from a company in Japan because of his experience in the steel making industry.

Thankfully for us he knew some Japanese so the integration into Japanese society wasn't too big of a hassle. The only problems were us learning to read, write and speak it fluently. Mum was still a doctor, though again, language skills held her back for the better part of a year before she was allowed to continue her job as a general practitioner.

It was around the time I turned six that I met the biggest head turner in my new life, telling me that not all was as it seemed.

I believed, at one point I had seen people jumping across rooftops. Now, that wasn't all that unusual for the small group of parkour practitioners in the region we had landed ourselves in, in Fuyuki city no less, some place meant to be entirely fictional! Rather these people were clearing entire streets. I had tried pointing them out to my parents whenever I saw them but my parents claimed that no one was there. For a short while I became mildly afraid that I was mentally disabled, until well, I figured out that I wasn't and realised that they must be ghosts too just like the dead floating apparition of Mr Guzevski back in Australia. It was a hard first few months.

The third and most damning situation that I found myself in was when I was almost wiped out by truck-kun in this new life of mine while walking home from school by myself. Some parents had of course pointed out that I may be a little too young to walk home by myself at this point but I practically lived just around the corner and across the street, no biggy.

Anyway, back onto topic. Having a large semi-trailer come barging at you with its horn blaring was an enlightening experience, though not in the way that most people would promptly wet their pants or shit themselves, either one really, before being hit by a truck and having their life ended then and there. I of course, was blessed with the power of a dues ex machina, because lets face it, what reincarnate isn't…ok don't answer that, stupid question. My power was to promptly find myself on the other side of the road in a single step. Not very dramatic, but oh so damning.

I think the thing that made me almost shit my pants that day wasn't in fact the truck, but rather a little girl that had seen me do such a thing, mouth wide open and gaping at the sudden physical feat I had just performed. Now, it probably wasn't a very good thing this happened and I almost wished at this point that I had indeed been struck by the truck and been lucky enough to survive with crippling injuries.

Rin Tohsaka ladies and gentlemen. I shit you not. Cute kid though. Thankfully she wasn't at school the next day so that was always a good thing I suppose…

It left me some time to contemplate what I had done exactly to escape the truck that day…green sparks of light flashed and simmered around my feet the moment after the step. Now, what fictional universe contained both green lights used for high speed movement techniques and had ghosts with chains hanging out of their chests…Bleach of course! Now, the only other reconcilable path that I could come up with was that I was currently living in a parallel universe of bleach in which it was crossed over with the Fate/stay franchise…neither good nor comforting I realised. Was it Zelretch's doing? No matter, pondering it here and now would neither get me results nor solve the mystery.

Well, look on the bright side! I have the potential to learn Fullbring! I didn't think for a moment that I was a hybrid of the four races like Japan's resident carrot so I'd have to learn quickly on how I could use Fullbring to my full advantage as quickly as possible since I currently lived in Fuyuki city and well, it's nineteen-ninety-four…wait…Rin has left the school…It's nineteen-ninety-four, and the Holy Grail War takes place in this year. Doesn't Rin leave the school just before the conflict starts?

* * *

"Hey Mum! Hey Dad!" I kicked my shoes off at the front door before heading to the kitchen. I was starving.

"Hello Kane!" Mum called out from somewhere in the house, though it sounded like it was coming from the lounge room. "How was school?" she asked the same generic question every day, but that was ok, cuz, no meaning to be weird or something here, but mum was hot, like, she could have been a supermodel if she wanted to instead of a doctor. Dad on the other hand, while well above average, he wasn't quite anywhere near that level. I had once thought Mum was in a relationship with Dad because of all the money he made, though I was pleasantly surprised that that was not the case. It was a nice stable relationship like the one my parents in my previous life had.

"Eh, it was alright…" It was anything but alright, "Almost got hit by a truck on the way home though." I had my hand reaching out for the fruit bowl when mum shrieked and came rushing into the kitchen before turning me in a complete circle multiple times just to check that I wasn't injured.

"Are you ok?" Mum was seriously worried at this point as I was now staring straight into her eyes and could almost see tears beginning to well up in them. She was such a cry-baby, I swear…though I suppose it showed that she really cared for me, so I could live with it I suppose.

"Do I look hurt?" I deadpanned back at her, turning back to the kitchen to eat more food for the nightly swimming training I was currently doing. It would start in around an hour or so, so I really needed to get a quick snack in before I went. Gotta keep up that sugar level after all.

Mum gave me a look that said she wasn't impressed before whacking me on the back of my head lightly and standing up. "You are so like your father."

I merely hummed in agreement at this point as I snacked on the food in the kitchen. I really was, even down to my looks. I suppose you could say I might turn into a slightly more attractive version of my Dad, only with blonde hair and blue eyes. Sure, he had blue eyes and both he and mum were supposedly blonde when they were younger, but I was the only one at the moment! That is all that matters. My superior blonde hair and Arian looks would make Hittler proud…though he was a mass murderer in this universe too so that's not really a good thing I guess.

I shrugged my shoulders non committedly as I threw away an apple core and went to get dressed for afternoon swim training. Stupid development squad meant going seven times a week, though I really wanted to beat everyone else in the next school carnival, so I had to put up with it for now.

I know I was kind of cheating with how I had already learnt in my previous life but that was neither here nor there when I had to regain the strength that my muscled body contained in my previous life. It was going to be a long few years with everything and puberty hanging around the corner.

* * *

"So, besides almost being hit by a truck, how was school really?" Mum asked as we were waiting in traffic for the light to turn green. "And don't say, 'it was alright'."

I gave mum a slight glare out of the corner of my eye and she merely smiled wickedly in response, promising only pain if I did as she said not too.

Letting out a sigh I gave her a quick run down, "Had a maths test, got a hundred," That earned a proud smile in turn. "Had a language skills test for grammar and puntuation, got a hundred in that too…" More smiling. Sorry to burst your bubble with the next one then. "Creative writing got a sixty..." I paused to gauge mum's reaction.

While her smile wasn't quite as bright as before she had a look that said, 'Well what can you do' as though giving up. I was a little disappointed with the lacklustre response really. Screaming may have been a little better than that.

Apparently she noticed. "Don't look so disappointed. You can't be good at everything." She chided me in response.

"I know that. Doesn't mean I can't be disappointed." I returned, jerking in my seat suddenly when the traffic light turned green and we began accelerating.

"…Well, no, but creative language skills were never your strong point." She replied being completely reasonable.

"I hate you mother." I sulked, knowing that mum would never take it seriously. "Why exactly can't I be the best that there ever was?" I asked, quoting a very well known yet crappy, at least in my opinion, show. Actually, it didn't exist yet, or at least it doesn't exist in this universe. I'm not exactly sure when Pokémon came out in my original universe, so it may have yet to be, though that remains to be seen. It didn't matter either way though, I wasn't exactly what you would call a fan of the series.

Mum just giggled slightly in response at my antics. "Because that's impossible."

"I'm going to make you eat your own words mum." I said when we finally arrived and stepped out of the car to begin swim training.

"You can certainly try." Mum smiled back before a thoughtful look overcame her face before digging around in the glove box of the car. "Almost forgot your goggles." Mum held them out to me and I took them.

* * *

Kayneth Archibald El Melloi was incredibly disappointed with the results of his summoning. Not only did that impudent wretch Waver steal his artefact for the war and force him to summon a new servant before the rest so he could exact his revenge on the unsuspecting boy as he made his pitiable magic circle out of chicken blood…For all that is- Argh. Anything else would have been better. His own piss or semen even. Chickens were neither magical in orgin nor were they capable of growing magic circuits. As such any substance that could come from said creature was neither mana enriched nor conducive to magical arts. Surely the boy knew this!...Unless…

No…That did not matter now. Waver is dead, the artefact though unfortunately destroyed when he became a little overzealous in his killing of Waver with Volumen Hydrargyrum even as lancer watched on. Originally, he had intended for the esteemed knight Diarmuid Ua Duibhne to take on Alexander the great while he went and killed the boy, though fortunately the boy was only in the process of summoning his servant and could still be stopped…though that presented him with an unprecedented problem.

Kayneth inhaled the scent of the rich red wine he was swirling in his glass before exhaling to try and help calm himself.

The problem being, that Kayneth had failed to take into account what exactly happened if a viable master was killed before he could summon his servant into the war. Of course at the time he hadn't thought of it much, thinking that the unsummoned spirit would instantly be transported to the lesser grail for containment until the time of victory where he would make his wish and reach the root…yes, unlike all of those sad deviants who wanted true magics and to revive the dead, Kayneth stayed true to the fundamental basis for all magi. To seek the origin of all things.

Instead of the intended servant being transferred into the lesser grail for holding the greater grail refused to let go of its satanic grip on the mass of energy that would power the ritual of the holy grail war.

Kayneth sighed once more. No matter. He would simply find the undeserving whelp that would come across the new servant and kill him as well.

Kayneth finally took a sip of the wine in his glass, noting the slight tang of passionfruit that accompanied it and let out a sound of appreciation for the fine wine, allowing the high alcohol content to dull his mind slightly on this second night of the grail war. His mind didn't have time to wander in the past, nor time to waste on dulled minds…this was an exception however, the only one he'd make during the war, if simply to calm his nerves before things became too chaotic.

After all, with assassin dead and that powerhouse for an Archer class servant, no one but his own servant would stand a chance against the menace. It was certainly powerful, he'd give the golden servant that. But the master of said servant was no Kayneth. It was undeniable then that the master would make a fatal error somewhere along the line and be killed by him or another seemingly competent master.

* * *

Training had finished some time ago and I was now back at home at the dinner table eating dinner with my parents. It was oddly quite and a few odd things had happened, well not really odd, but odd nonetheless. Mum normally has half a glass of wine on work days because I'd imagine it's stressful, though she was pretty adamant about not having any anymore.

"Soooo," Mum had a huge grin on her face…

"Your pregnant." I blurted out without thinking. Apparently I'd hit the nail on the head as a look of shock overcame mum before dad realised what was happening who then almost choked on his wine in the process of trying to swallow it.

"How could you tell?" Mum had the nerve to ask as I merely narrowed my eyes in turn.

"I could hear you and dad going at it pretty much every night you did it." I stated, which drew a slightly horrified look from mum while dad merely smiled in turn.

"Why are you listening?" He smiled.

Oh dear god no.

"You want us to be louder?" his grin grew the question coming out as more of a statement than an actual question. "Ok."

"No!" I shouted back horrified. I didn't want to hear my parents love making in the room over any more than I had to. My shout nearly masked the knock on the front door. "What the?" Who the hell would be knocking on house doors at this time in the night. It's like, seven.

Dad merely voiced my thoughts. "Who the hell could it be at this time of the night?" He grumbled slightly as he got up and moved to answer the front door.

It wasn't like we were expecting anyone either which is what made it so odd. We have on occasion had a neighbour ask if they'd seen someone stealing some of their property since theft was a slight problem around here, though if everything was behind locked doors it wasn't really a problem.

"Surprise bitch!" A loud crash followed the voice of a Japanese male yelling into the house.

"Brendan!" Mum unfortunately quickly followed the noise into the hallway and screamed shortly after before I could hear something sharp rending flesh. It didn't sound pleasant and I can firmly say that I almost fainted when I saw the man who had effectively killed my parents wandering around the corner with my mother gurgling blood in his grip as he pulled her by her hair into the dining room.

"Scream and I'll gut you too." Uryuu Ryunosuke said pointing his knife at me.

What was even worse was the fact that he held a book in his front right pocket that looked to have some runic inscriptions on it of some kind. This was it. I was going to be sacrificed to some crazed mage that would be summoned from the throne of Heros…well, I'm not sure Gilles de Rais qualifies as an anti-hero either given his actions in the war that I saw, from the time I was on the other end of the screen at least…That doesn't matter right now!

What does matter is that the psycho Uryuu is getting closer while dragging my mother's corpse. It was a wonder really how our neighbours hadn't heard the scream. I was shaking, too afraid to do much of anything, though I was planning to run the moment Uryuu wasn't looking my way.

Uryuu seemed to have read my body language however and promptly dropped mum's corpse face first onto the floor with a sickening crunch before leaping across the table, scattering the dinner plates and utensils before grabbing a fistful of my shirt and thrusting the kitchen knife he held up to my neck. "Don't think I didn't see that!"

Tears were already gathering in my eyes, the recent events catching up to me. My parents had been killed! Sure, they weren't the first set of parents I'd ever had but I'd learned to love them all the same, and now, there was mum, behind this crazed psychopath lying dead on the floor.

"Ooooh, poor boy." Uryuu sounded strangely sympathetic as he pulled himself closer and sat next to me. "It's alright." He dragged one of his palms lovingly against my cheek. "It'll all be over soon." He continued while he pulled up the rope he had with him and began wrapping it around my torso. I couldn't move beforehand out of pure fear, and I couldn't move now because of the thick rope that was binding me to the chair. I began struggling far too late for it to matter.

"You'll be sacrificed to a demon soon." He almost cooed and only made me struggle far harder than before. "Now, to keep you from screaming like a bad little boy," He pulled a shredded piece of cloth from my mums shirt and wrapped it around my head and over my mouth as tightly as he could, to the point at which it felt painful. I was screaming at this point but it was far too late. I'd gathered my bearings far too late. If I was going to make it out of this place alive I'd need to make some improvised moves.

I looked around, watching as Uryuu looked satisfied with his work before pulling a beer out of the fridge and using mums teeth to open it. I had to fight my flinch as I heard teeth being wrenched from their spot in her jaw before he held it up to his lips, took a quick swig before sighing and wandering out into the hall to drag my dads body into the dining room.

…No! Think!

What happened in the original anime?

He…he…uh, he summoned Gilles de Rais and offered the kid to Caster as sacrifice! Not good…moving on. Caster releases said child much to Uryuu's disgruntlement and ushering the boy to run out into the hallway where he sees the front door before he's torn to shreds by some creature that should come from the Cthulhu mythos…Also not good.

"Ahh!" Uyruu sighs as he finishes the last of the beer and chucks it out the open back window to the house causing it to easily fly a full street over and smash on the road as we are on the third story of the building we live in. "Your dad has good taste in beer kid!" he said while pulling my dad further into the room before slitting his jugular as well as my mothers and allowing the blood to start pouring out of their bodies even faster than before.

While he waits for this to happen he turns the TV on in the living room and flicks over to the news channel before coming back. Something to have on in the background I suppose as he cranks up the volume while in there.

I quickly look to the hallway again and note that we do indeed live on the end of the apartment complex and there is a window with no protective screen in place that is completely open to let the cool night air in. Too high for me to accidentally fall through, but low enough for me to jump out of and hope I survive the fall. I have Fullbring power right? Hopefully I might be able to use that to my advantage…who am I kidding, at my skill level of beginner I'm more likely to break something when I hit the ground. Still better than being eaten alive though.

"Watcha lookin' at kiddo?" Uryuu's face us uncomfortably close to mine as he presses his bloodied cheek to mine and looks straight down the hallway. "You wanna leave huh?" he asks while pulling back. "Don't worry, it'll all be over soon and we can experience the brightest colours as a demon eats you alive! Isn't it exciting!"

No, no it is not…please let me go now.

I look pleadingly into Uryuu's eyes despite knowing that it won't happen.

"Now!" Uryuu states dramatically flaring his arms out wide, "Tonight we summon a demon! Oh what fun we'll have!" He giggles slightly to himself while hunched over.

Next he pulls the book he held in his pocket out and flips to a page with the appropriate diagram for him to sketch on the floor with the available blood.

Kicking his shoes off he dipped his toes in the fresh red liquid and began to paint the markings on the floor.

"…A five pointed star? No, six." Uryuu mumbles to himself as he sketched a star on the floor followed by concentric circles lining the points. He went on for at least another thirty minutes as my nerves began to calm considerably despite the imminent danger I was in. In that time, the last fifteen or so odd minutes I tried summoning to the forefront of my mind that iridescent green light that would save me from a fall to my death out the window. I refused to be eaten by a tentacle monster with a blender for teeth.

It took a while from then but once Uryuu was done he scratched his head a little, looking unsure at the drawing he'd painted on the floor. "I hope this is the right one this time…" he mumbled to himself, "I'll have to kill another family if it isn't…that just takes too long. Fun, but time consuming."

Wait, what? All of those extra earlier killings in the anime weren't for show? He just went through the pages at each house and painted a new formal craft circles every time he failed by killing a new family?

It was an odd feeling at that point, wishing for something you hoped wouldn't happen to happen. Well, at least I'd have the chance to escape through the window and brave the forces of gravity rather than that of a crazed mage.

"Fill, fill, fill 'er up, fill-…" Uryuu paused looking at his fingers as though trying to remember how to count to ten. It was a little funny if I thought about it that way, though, I needed to keep the struggling up if Uryuu wasn't to get bored. "Eh, was it four or five times?"

I almost deadpanned at that. How could you screw it up! Your basically reading instructions from a booklet!

It didn't matter in the end though, Gilles de Rais would be summoned and I'd have to jump out a window while trying to forget about the fact that my dead parents were on the floor in front of me…I'd murder the fucker for killing my parents, no need to wait for Kiritsugu.

"Um, destroy each when filled…tch!" Uryuu was quickly growing frustrated with his results though I knew he was on the right track. While I may not fully remember the summoning pact, I did recognise those few lines. "Fill, fill, fill, fill, fill." He counted them off on his fingers this time before a grin grew on his face. "Aha, it is five!" he applauded himself with a striking grin, striking a slight pose meanwhile. "Okay!"

"Meanwhile we bring you breaking news. Another victim has been found recently and seems to have been killed in the same fashion as the previous victims, with a pentagram drawn in blood." The news lady decided to bring this to the forefront at this specific point in time.

Well, thanks. I already know about him. He's right fucking here. I screamed into the cloth again and Uryuu seemed to take notice of me once more.

"Do you believe in demons kid?" He looked me dead in the eyes as he did so, going almost unnaturally quite before breaking into a huge grin once more. "These news people are labelling me as a demon yet that would be kind of rude to demons if they did exist eh, wouldn't it?" He was unnaturally close at this point, I could feel his breath on my cheeks as mania struck once more and laughter chorused throughout the apartment.

"Hi there! I'm Uryuu Ryunosuke, your demon!" He lunged right up close and I jumped a little. I was never good with jump scares. "At least," he paused putting a finger to his chin, "I think that's how I should introduce myself if I were a demon."

"I found this little thing here." He waved the book in front of me as if I hadn't just seen him reading from it for the last half hour trying to paint with my parents blood. "It apparently let my ancestors summon demons or something so I thought to myself, hey! Why not try the thing?" He trailed off after his question, looking at the TV as the news report about the murders was still under way.

"Weeeell, it hasn't worked out so well yet, so I'm kind of hoping that it will this time. There's only so many times I can try this thing before I get bored of it and just keep killing people for fun." He inhaled deeply doing his best to calm himself. "If it does summon a demon, I'm gonna feed you to him, kay?"

He stepped back then, dropping the book on the floor in the process. It would only be a matter of moments now until the servant was summoned and I'd either make it to freedom or be torn apart by monsters.

"Ow." Uryuu hissed lightly as a glow was emitted from the back of his hand and the circle he drew on the ground lit up in a brilliant light summoning forth a shadow of mist that slowly congealed into a shape with human forms and characteristics but ultimately could not be called human with how hideous his face was with his bulbous bug like eyes spaced so far apart you could probably place two regular sets of eyes in between them.

"Waaah!" Uryuu exclaimed with a hint of excitement. It was really working!

"I ask you," the man wearing purple robes began, "You who calls me, you who seeks me."

Meanwhile I could only wonder why the hell so many characters were over dramatic for absolutely no reason what so ever. He is insane I suppose...

"Summoner who manifests me under the class of caster." Eyes opened and raised to the crazy man that wanted to sacrifice me to the equally insane yet infinitely more powerful version of himself. "I ask your name…Yes…who are you?"

"Uh…" Uryuu was stumped. He was talking to a real demon! Well, he was dressed to impress…figuratively speaking of course. "I'm Uryuu Ryunosuke. I'm unemployed and like killing people pretty much…especially young kids and women." Voracious eyes glazed over my mother's dead body as he licked his lips, eyes straying to mine for the briefest of moments.

"The pact is done." Gilles said as he nodded to Uryuu, and just like that they were master and servant. "Pray tell, what your wish for the Holy Grail is master?"

"Grail?" Uryuu scratched his head, turning it to the side trying to figure out what exactly this man was speaking of. He had nothing. "I don't know what you're talking about but I got this kid here." He pointed a casual thumb over towards me as I instantly froze when the bug eyed mans eyes lay onto me. "Wanna eat him or something?"

Gilles appeared almost stunned for a moment, though his features were so quickly schooled that it was hard to tell if they even existed in the briefest moment of their existence, though among the expression existed the emotion of delight. Something that unnerved me greatly.

Gilles merely pulled out a small book, his spell book, in response and opened to a selected page before uttering a few words. Words that would have me killed, though I knew better than to trust the man.

"Whoa! Is that human skin?" Uryuu asked, pointing at the book with an unparalleled level of curiosity, before his finger was batted to the side by Caster and promptly shot down. "Heeey." Uryuu whined, but wisely chose to shut up when caster began walking towards me.

The E-rank strength showed itself when he pushed a chair out of the way and it almost went flying across the room and crashed into the lounge, landing in a mighty heap snapped timber.

All I could mutter in my mind was 'oh fuck, oh fuck' over and over again as the man approached. My fear for the man seemed to make the stretch of time go on forever and before I knew it my hands were free and I was being stood up in front of the kindest smile the deranged man could muster.

"Are you alright?" The man smiled welcomingly. I had to give it at least a six out of ten. It would definitely fool most children and possibly some less intelligent adults.

I merely nodded in response as to quickly leave the situation and not give up my knowledge of the situation at hand.

"You see that hallway there?" Gilles pointed out to where the front entrance would be. Around the corner of the hall, directly past the window I planned to jump out of. "All you have to do is leave and not come back and everything will be fine alright?"

I decided to play the part of hopeful child and impishly nodded my head with an air of rearing confidence, as though to say, 'I will make it through this.' Of course I knew better though, having been a somewhat avid fan of the series, though I'd only really taken to knowing the original Fate/stay night and Fate/zero and some minor offshoots like Tsukihime or Carnival Phantasm…Of course this normally wouldn't be enough information to make it past a serious follower in terms of knowledge but passable nonetheless. I had in fact however read about a number of differing hero's from the franchise's spin offs so if any other servants were summoned than the original seven I may know their identity at a glance, though I seriously hoped this is where my involvement would end after I escape.

Gilles de Rais nudged me gently towards the hallway and I stepped forwards precariously before sprinting forwards only catching a few words from Uryuu as I was too busy mustering my confidence in the fraction of a second I had left before I would leap out the window and pray to whatever diety may exist that the little sparks I had mustered consciously in my time on the chair would be enough to save me. Though, if I was especially lucky they would carry me to the next roof over and I'd be able to make my way down the apartment complex through the staircase.

It would appear Caster noted my sudden change in course at the last possible second as when I leapt out the window I could see the mass of writhing blue and purple flesh spring to the end of the hallway and leap forwards to try and catch me by the ankle.

It was too late however as I passed clean of the window sill and began my free-fall decent a moment later, luminous green sparks lighting my path as I fell. I could hear behind me, the shattering of glass as the creature impacted the window. I didn't hear it follow however as both Caster and Uryuu would no doubt be confused by my line of action, an action done by a little boy in the modern age where magecraft wasn't nearly as common knowledge as it was a few hundred years ago and even less so a thousand. I was sure to perish form their perspectives.

Fortunately for me, that wasn't the case as the green sparks I'd summoned suddenly coalesced into something more powerful…no that wouldn't be right. They became directed towards the direction of my fall and I could feel the buffer of wind intensify for the briefest of moments before I struck the ground and collapsed in a heap, landing squarely on my front with my hands in front of my face to protect it.

…I could hardly believe it. I survived…I survived!

I leapt to my feet and began running, ignoring the aching pain in my joints and bones from the fall, willing the same luminescence that graced me before hand to propel me even faster forwards. I even had a mishap at the start where I stumbled and nearly tripped over as the sudden propulsion was so high it was completely unexpected.

"Oh dear…" I heard Caster say through the window even as I ran.

The creatures that caster could summon seemingly multiplied out of thin air even as I ran as hard as I could, pushing this new ability of mine to the limit. I was sure at this point I had surpassed Human limits in terms of raw speed as the scenery seemed to blur, though it still wasn't enough as the creatures were gaining ground.

I channelled the cold warmth that I could feel digging through my veins at this point into my legs as hard as I could, even as the feeling felt like driving icy shards into my muscles.

I came quickly to a corner and tried to turn only to fall to the ground and tumble head over heels into a wall. I suspect the mystical energy that was allowing me to move so fast had saved me from becoming a splatter on the wall or rupturing my head on impact. It didn't save me from death however as those creatures were fast approaching down the alleyway I was in.

Once more however, blood congealed before me, my blood, in the shape of a formal craft circle, much like the one that had been drawn by Uryuu himself, only this time it was far cleaner and more precise…While I had hoped to avoid being included in this little farce of a competition anymore, gaining a servant was far more preferable to dying right this instant, so when I saw it I was filled with a mixture of both relief and dread.

A sudden wind picked up as the magic circle spun into being and a glitter of mana permeated the lower half of the being that would be summoned. Ether, a substance from which servants are almost entirely constructed, both elusive and considered useless to most at the same time, such a substance was meant to carry a copy of the soul that once lay within the living hero that is to be summoned.

The mana of the grail and master would hold the construct together for long enough to allow combat to start and finish in the war, approximately a month at the absolute outside before a secondary set of servants would be summoned by the grail to finish the job, leaving the last man standing as the wish maker.

…No, no way.

I stared at the woman that had been summoned. By far one of the most attractive, in my opinion at least, servants that had been presented in any of the Grail wars that I knew about and was supposed to be Sakura Matou's own servant in the fifth war…Rider, or, as her real name is, Medusa. Long flowing purple hair that reached her ankles and a blood red blindfold that covered her mystic eyes of Cybele.

Her tight purple dress hugged her form, accentuating her curves greatly as matte fuchsia coloured shin guards adorned her legs and metal bracelets the size of giant ancient shackles were on her upper and lower arms holding black fabric in place as they did on her thighs as well. The cloth was no doubt stronger than ordinary cloth, though against other Hero's it may as well be paper mache. That didn't matter however as she was my servant, that I was sure of. She would save me form the approaching death.

She seemed to snap to attention almost instantaneously as the creatures approached, making be forget about the sudden sharp pain that appeared on the back of my hand as the wave of creatures approached.

Rider cast a glance back at me as I sat up right, the command seals on the back of my hand pulsing sporadically, telling me of the danger of the other master servant duo that was on approach…or rather the minions that were approaching, I was unsure of the location of the current master servant duo, though it was unlikely that Uryuu would let me go so easily.

Rider seemed to hedge her bets for a moment, less than a fraction of a second before she sprung into action, tightly coiled muscles propelling her forwards at speeds many times greater than what I had managed to achieve previously.

Her signature weapon of a giant metal stake in each hand was brought to the fore as she threw both through the hoard of monsters before grabbing the chains and wrenching back on them causing the spiked handles to rip through the enemy in a single move. Great crowd control weapon I had to say. The way she moved was absolutely mesmerising as I doubt even Olympic gymnasts would be able to match her range of motion or flexibility easily.

Once the monsters were dealt with and I was climbing to my feet, Rider approached.

"I ask of you," Rider looked down at me, devoid of emotion. "are you my master?"

I wasn't supposed to know what that was…or maybe I could get away with it since I'd seen Uryuu go through a similar thing only ten minutes ago.

"I-I," it was getting hard to think, thankfully now rather than earlier. Blood was pouring out of my wounds causing me to become rather light headed. "I think so." I muttered the last part even as I glanced down at the command seals in the form of angel wings with a single straight pointed body separating the two down the middle.

The last thing I remembered was Rider catching me in her arms as I finally collapsed, holding me up before taking across the rooftops to a safer location.

* * *

**Word count: 6995**

**A quick note: All of my previous stories are somewhat lacking and will be abandoned. I will leave them up however as I actually found some remakes of some of them like 'Fullbringer'. Turns out I already have something like 50k in that in terms of words. I'd completely forgotten about it honestly, and I reaaaly like it after reading it through, so I'll continue that one, but the rest are toast. Shitty plot, shitty development, not to mention 'Fullbringer 2.0' is now a blend of 'Fullbringer' and 'Encroaching flames' in terms of eventual plot so why bother with that one. I'll post the first few chapters of that soon and see how you all like it once I check for mistakes.**

**Onwards!**

**Servant stats:**

**Class: ****Rider**

**Name: Medusa**

**Status: Alive**

**Master: Kane ()**

**Status: Unsure**

**Strength: ****C (Do you even lift bro)**

**Endurance: D (Please don't hit me, I might explode!)**

**Agility: B (Kinda fast...Meh)**

**Mana: B (Not a portable battery but alright)**

**Luck: E (Influenced by Masters shitty Luck stat)**

**N.P: A+ (Powah!)**

**Class Skills:**

**Magic resistance: B (Does ok against mages, especially slow ones)**

**Riding: A (Can ride anything including Divine and Mythical creatures, excluding dragons)**

**Personal Skills:**

**Divinity: E- (Was once a revered Goddess created by the imagination of man. Cursed by Athena)**

**Independent**** action: C (Can go off by herself and not get lost, temporary immunity to losing a master. Can last a day without a master)**

**Monstrous strength: B (Can temporarily Rank up Strength stat at the cost of slowly turning into her monstrous form over time. Turning off the skill reverts the user to their previous state. Leaving it on however beyond a certain time limit may see some permanent changes be they physical, magical, or mental.)**

**Mystic eyes of Cybele: A+ (Possessing Rank C or lower in mana will lead to immediate petrification of the target. B Rank and above will experience a Rank down in all stats until the gaze is broken. Affects both clothing and weaponry as well)**

**Noble Phantasms:**

**Breaker Gorgon: Ensnare the senses of those affected and disable all abilities. Must be in physical contact with target and target must be unaware of your presence.**

**Rank: C Anti-Personnel**

**Blood Fort Andromeda: Lay markings within a designated area and suck the mana dry from all within the boundary. Can be resisted by those with Magic ability higher than C-rank**

**Rank: B Anti-Army**

**Bellerophon: A harness that is capable of controlling all mythical and Divine creatures it is attached to with the exception of Dragons. Medusa personally has it mounted on the Pegasus she received as a gift from Poseidon before she was cursed by Athena.**

**Rank: A+ Anti-Army**


	2. CH 2: Engagement

**Chapter two: Engagement**

* * *

"Another servant has been summoned?" Kirei Kotomine stated to his father as though it were an absolute impossibility. Seven servants had already been summoned hadn't they? If another were to be summoned, what could it possibly mean?

"No," Risei said in turn, turning away form the altar to face his son, "We thought a servant had been summoned by a potential master. He was slain before the ritual was completed and so the right of master was passed onto another."

Kirei merely frowned at the thought. On one hand the war had technically started before it was supposed to then, since not all servants had been summoned before the attack of assassin on the Tohsaka mansion and his subsequent death at the hands of archer. On the other, the newest master was likely a nobody who had been fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, been roped into this gladiatorial free for all. They were a complete wild card.

It was initially known to be Waver Velvet who as a selected master for one of the positions as he had called in previously to say that he had joined the war and had received command seals, that was over a week ago. He was supposed to return his call to say what class servant he had, though rarely did one ever do so, so initially there was no need for concern, however, when the connection Risei felt with Waver fizzled and died a few nights ago and only last night did a new one take its place was there a rise for concern.

Granted the concern was mild at worst. They weren't expecting anyone of a high calibre to join the war so late.

Risei continued, "As it is, there is no need to be worried, though it is unlikely that the new master is aware of the rules if they were selected from the populace that is not aware of the moonlit world so it will be difficult to determine who the master is."

"That is of no concern of ours." Kirei responded matter of factly. If they had no idea of the moonlit world then there was no need for concern and they would die off shortly with or without his and Risei's intervention. "Though Tokiomi may find it slightly annoying that a master did not see his servant take care of assassin."

"I agree." Risei acknowledged his sons opinion. "I merely thought it prudent to be aware of all of the facts in case something out of the ordinary occurs."

"Mm." Kirei hummed his own acknowledgement.

* * *

It must have been the early morning when I awoke as the sun I could see through the window of the room I was in was just breaking over the horizon…Room?

I sat up perhaps a little too quickly and felt my head spin for a brief moment. I suppose the blood loss is still getting to me. Though, I could see that bandages had been applied to my body in various places with some level of skill. Almost all of my clothes except my shorts had been removed as well, to get better access to where I could only imagine shards of glass were imbedded in my back as the window from last night had large fragments buried in my skin. Shallow wounds, though in high numbers.

"I see that you are awake master." A smooth feminine voice entered my ears causing me to jump, reminding me that I had in fact summoned Medusa as my servant last night…Last night my parents were murdered before my eyes. I'd kill Uryuu Ryunosuke before the war was over, either with my own hands or indirectly. Either way, I wanted a hand in it.

"Um, hello." I was at a slightly loss for words as Rider materialised in the room, towering over me. She was fairly tall for a girl, in Japan at least. There were plenty of other places in the world where girls grew to far taller heights than she and she had some height complex or something. I guess she liked taller men or something and was self-conscious about it for some reason. Either way, that wasn't the pressing issue at hand.

"Master," Rider began. "You may call me Rider for the duration of the Holy Grail war."

"War?" I wasn't supposed to know what I was getting myself into so why act like I knew what was going on. After all, the sequence of events would no doubt change by tonight in fact. Alexander the great was supposed to be summoned as Rider and would initially prevent the renewal of the battle between Saber and Lancer tonight…Irisviel arrives today by plane after all.

It was coming back to me, slowly, piece by piece.

For the briefest of moments Rider looked a little worried about me. "Yes, war. The Holy Grail War is a battle for a magical device which will grant any wish you give it, within the bounds of certain conditions, though as to what those conditions are, I am unsure."

I frowned and cited an old saying that probably applied here more than anywhere else at the moment. "It sounds too good to be true."

Rider merely tilted her head questioningly before replying. "If you say so master." Though, concern fluttered across her face for a moment once more before returning to the stoic façade she was used to maintaining. "Are you alright?"

I glanced once more at myself. I was literally covered in bandages and felt only slightly woozy. I'd say pretty good by that quick assessment. I voiced my thoughts as such to Rider whom merely seemed to relax slightly at the news that I wouldn't be dying anytime soon.

We stood there for a long while sizing each other up, and well, it didn't reveal much to either of us so I started the conversation. "What happens in the Holy Grail War?" A perfectly reasonable and relevant question.

"In the war seven servants are summoned from bygone ages in which their legends were forged before being recorded into history." Rider began, and well, she did a pretty good job at story telling. "They are summoned as Hero's from a metaphysical throne in which they reside in order to combat each other to decide whom is the most worthy of having their wish granted. The remaining participants must have both party members of servant and master to qualify."

"And you. What is your wish Rider?" I asked genuinely interested if it was any different from her time in the original Visual Novel.

"I…" Rider paused as though trying to think of a suitable response. Alas, the words failed to formulate in her mind. "…do not have one. You may use the grail for whatever wish you desire should we win."

Huh…The same as before. I couldn't say I was disappointed, nor was I shocked really. I had no doubt Rider would faithfully serve me throughout the duration of the war as she did or will…I was unsure, for Sakura in the one that was supposed to take place in ten years from now.

I mulled over my thoughts for a moment weighing the pros and cons of telling her I actually know about the Grail war. On one hand I can gain an upper hand over the other contestants as I know all of their identities, abilities and possible locations, with the exception of Waver. I was never sure where he was supposed to be though I suppose it didn't matter anymore as he was likely dead since I have a Rider servant in place of him.

On the other hand, the idea would seem somewhat incredulous. It would be unlikely for Rider to believe me until she had visible proof of my fore knowledge that would safely see us through most of this battle royal…The plan seemed obvious, though first of all…

"Where are we?" I asked curiously. It seemed a little like one of the few hotels that were in Fuyuki though how she managed to get a room is a complete mystery.

"A hotel in the Shinto district." Rider stated matter of factly. "It was slightly difficult procuring a room with no money, though I managed to appropriate some money from wandering pedestrians in order to pay for a single night here. We have to leave by ten AM."

Wonderful. Not only is she a servant, she's also a thief.

The emotions must have played across my face and she'd somehow seen them through her blindfold as her only response was to say 'Sorry' before continuing to stand silently.

Come to think of it. "How did you get past the front counter dressed like that?" I pointed at her clothing to which she merely shrugged. It was probably for the best that we left now anyway. If anyone had seen her coming into the building dressed like that, be they a potential master servant duo or the like our location has probably already been compromised.

* * *

Rider was…unsure of her current master. Yes she would protect them with her life, and make sure they survived, they were only a child after all, a young boy. It still did not prevent the fact that this boy did not have any parents she knew of or a legal guardian which could take care of him during the duration of the war while she fought off potential attackers.

She could only assume this meant that the boy's parents or guardians were dead.

As the child asked his questions, she got the vague impression that she was answering questions he already knew the answer too. She complied however, as it was harmless to do so for either party, servant or master.

Her curiosity grew however when he didn't ask if his parents were ok, or about the creatures that attacked them the night before. Casters doing, she was sure of it. That left little to the imagination. His parents were likely killed by Caster and their master and he knew it. As such the boy was now an orphan. While he should not be participating in the war at such a young age, as it was impossible to properly take care of him and fight at the same time, though Rider suspected that the child was better at taking care of himself than she initially thought.

Hmm, what to do?

"Rider?" Oh, he was speaking again. It was different this time however. He sounded surer of himself. Or rather, he was trying to make himself more confident. "Would you betray me?"

A silly notion. She would not abandon a child to the cruelties of war despite what her past self may have been like when she became the Gorgon. He was likely feeling quite vulnerable at the moment though due to the loss of his parents.

"No, master." She spoke the pure and unequivocal truth. "I swear I will protect you with my life." Whatever hers was worth anyway as this shadow of her former self. Even if she had gained her sanity back, she still remembered killing all of those people who wanted to take her sisters and lay with them against their wishes. Worst of all, she devoured them, her sisters that is. People like her didn't deserve to exist, and people were hard to trust after she was cursed by the Goddess Athena and cast aside by her followers because of said curse. She held a soft spot or children however, though she was not sure why, perhaps it had to do with the fact that her sisters looked like children, teenagers perhaps, themselves despite being many times older than an adult.

It was then her master said something truly outrageous. "I already knew about the Holy Grail War. I just needed some clarification that it was actually happening."

"…" she wasn't sure of what to say about that.

"In fact. I might know the identities of all of the servants. Though it remains to be seen whether or not all of the servants are the same as last time…" Her master muttered the last part to himself.

Indeed, though, knowing the identities of the servants before hand would be a tremendous boon. It would allow her to know of all possible dangers that she could encounter in the war…though she did wonder how he accomplished such a thing…the amount of mana flowing from him to her was too weak to last the entire war so he was unlikely to be an magus in training and she would likely perish along with her master by the end of the week, though she would do her best to prevent such a thing from happening. More than likely a child from a family that was unaware of the unfortunate circumstances that befell them. It was indeed a curious thing.

No matter.

"We should probably kill caster first." Was the next thing the child said. He just kept adding to the curiosities didn't he?

Rider's head twisted somewhat in confusion. Yes, it would not be that difficult to handle a mage that merely deals in familiars of the level she faced last night, especially at the amount of mana she could detect from both when they were near, though she thought it may be more prudent to take care of the other masters first, though perhaps he knows something she does not.

* * *

"We should probably kill caster first."

I hesitated once I said that. Rin was supposed to have her little escapade on one of the earlier episodes where she rescues a group of children from Uryuu…Though, the longer I left it the more likely people were to die, other children to be specific…Nor did we have Alexanders reality marble to help deal with the giant squid monster which would make the battle against Gilles that more difficult should it come to it.

The problem was though, did I actually know the location of Uryuu? Would it actually change from that small meeting of theirs and his subsequent escape? Rider's summoning?

Unlikely. He will probably still be holed up in the sewers somewhere with caster unleashing the greatest 'cool' or whatever. Japanese literature was so weird sometimes.

If we killed caster now, lancer wouldn't break his spear Gae Buidhe and it would continue to incapacitate Saber throughout the war giving us a greater chance of killing her if given the chance… Archer would of course be rather pissed at such a development and would likely hunt for our heads across the earth until we were suitably punished for destroying one of his potential toys.

Dealing with him would be the most difficult, hell, it would almost be easier to straight up Kill Tokiomi and Kirei Kotomine to prevent a renewal of his contract with the fake priest. Surely Rider would be capable of killing both. She had what? B-rank magic resistance? Enough to resist even some of the most powerful magic of the modern era, only falling short to Saber in terms of Magic resistance, nor were her potential enemies enhanced physically by Medea to be the Souichirou Kuzuki of this war. No death by master hands on that front at least

So, I supposed it was ok to forgo the Rin adventure scene. It was meant to build some character or something, I couldn't remember it all too well. She ended up getting rescued by Kariya Matou anyway.

Medusa's physical stats however likely fell short of a fully empowered Rider servant of Medusa's calibre for the simple reason I had not used my magic circuits for a single day in my entire life. More than likely her stats were near what they were when Shinji was her master, a full rank down in everything but luck. Hm. Still well above human and average for a servant but I wondered if there was a way to raise her stats besides the obvious use of Blood Fort Andromeda…or me ordering her to chow down on some human blood.

I wonder.

My Fullbring perhaps?

I had only just earned it yesterday and learnt to manipulate it in some coordinated manner that slowed my fall. Though I should probably deign to master it as soon as possible as the properties of Bringer Light could not be readily ignored. Complete enhancement of anything it touched by the will of the user, meaning I could increase the grounds elasticity and leap to new heights, literally. I could also eventually form solid platforms of air to seemingly fly. I wondered what the effects of enhancing a servant with it would be?

It was highly unlikely that such a thing would happen by the end of the war however.

I shook my head clearing it of my thoughts.

"Master?" Rider questioned curiously.

Right, she was still here. I almost forgot about her presence for a moment.

"First of all, please don't call me master." I began. We were going to have to lay some ground rules. "Call me by my real name. It is both less suspicious and weird. If you were to call me such in public another master or servant may be able to pick us out." I thought my argument was perfectly reasonable. "So, call me by my name, Kane."

Rider only pondered it for a fraction of a second before nodding. "Very well."

I sighed in relief, internally of course. I couldn't be seen breaking down because my servant refused to call me Kane, though thankfully she obeyed and that was that.

"Other than that I was thinking of some plans on how to best deal with the other masters and a new place of residence we could take up."

I glanced at the clock noting it to be roughly eight thirty in the morning. Time for breakfast in the meantime then. More planning can happen later.

"I'm hungry though, so we can finish this little conversation later." I said while hopping off of the bed and sliding on the dirty shirt I had from the day before…I needed new clothes and I couldn't exactly go back to my apartment.

* * *

I ate and Rider had turned into spirit form for the time being even if I insisted that she try something to eat as well. Sure the cuisine may not be as grand as what she may have tasted in her days when she was revered as a Goddess, though the average food quality was sure to have gone up tremendously. Rider still refused however stating that she needed to keep watch over the him and the easiest way to do that was in her spirit form for the time being.

I didn't argue with her because she was right, though I still insisted if only for the sake of my own curiosity of how she would react to the taste of the breakfast buffet that was served this morning.

Meanwhile, I gathered a few suspicious stares as the dirty clothes I wore stuck out like a sore thumb among the well dressed individuals staying here as well.

On to other matters, we needed a place to stay and I vaguely remembered that there is in fact a mansion much like the Einzberns one on the other end of Fuyuki that was abandoned during the third Grail War. Once owned by the Edelfelts I believe. As the Edelfelts weren't supposed to compete in this war or the next there was no reason to believe that the mansion was currently inhabited. It certainly wasn't when Bazzet occupied it with Avenger during Hollow Ataraxia so I assumed it would be fine to occupy now. Less dusty too. If it wasn't, well, I could always send Rider in to set off any traps present as they would likely only scuff her clothing slightly.

Fortunately for us, we were already in Shinto and not Miyama and it would cut travel time down significantly.

I handed the room keys over a short while later and garnered a few stares as I was supposed to be in school by this time of the morning. I ignored them however and set of in the direction I thought the mansion to be. Rider's enhanced senses should help find the place as she didn't rely on sight and instead used magic detection, hearing, smell and touch to gain a far more precise understanding of the world around her. It should theoretically help prevent any assassin servants from getting too close without her knowing.

* * *

Irisviel stepped off of the aircraft that had brought her to Japan and onto the staircase that would bring her to the ground. It was quite a site, she had to admit. She was only upset that Kiritsugu wasn't here to help show her around. A small selfish part of her wished that he would face the consequences of his actions for bringing her emotions to the fore and be there to support her even in the event that would lead to her inevitable death.

Alas, only servant Saber was here, and while that was comforting to know it still hurt that her lover wasn't here.

"So," Irisviel turned to look at Saber as she stepped out of the plane and joined Irisviel. "How did you find flying in an aircraft for the first time?" She was truly curious as to how the King of knights felt.

"To be honest, it didn't feel all that special. Far less exciting than I imagined it to be." Saber confessed as she looked at the airport as it appeared far more alluring in terms of human architecture than the craft from which she had just been in.

"Really?" Irisviel was a little shocked at that. It was her first time flying through the sky like a bird, though granted they didn't have the wind in their faces like a bird would it was an experience in and of itself, at least Irisviel thought so. It was her first time on such a craft as well, having been couped up in the castle back in Germany until this fated day.

"Yes." Saber nodded her head as she began down the steps, having taken in the scenery, ushering Irisviel to move forwards. "The grail grants relevant knowledge of the current age so I will not be confused when I see or hear of something I would not normally recognise. In fact, with my riding skill I believe I would even be able to pilot this craft."

That stopped Irisviel for a moment. "Pilot?" Just like that?

"My riding skill is B-rank and allows me to mount any creature or vehicle as long as they are not mythical or divine in nature." Saber affirmed to Irisviel whom only nodded in response and giggled at the lewd connotations of the word mount. Truly, the world of modern man had corrupted her, though her favourite topic by far was the automotive world. She wanted to get a chance to drive sometime while here and test her skills.

Meanwhile Saber was slightly confused as to what Irisviel found so amusing about the word 'mount', though she deigned to ignore it in favour of handing some of the luggage onto the transport that would take them to the main terminal along with the other Homunculi maids.

It didn't take long from there, though they did manage to draw a small crowd that gawked at the strangely all identical maid escort that accompanied them through the airport. That was where they separated with the maids however, as they would take the luggage to the castle in the forest and Saber and Rider would do some sight seeing in the city, officially for reconnaissance purposes, but who was to say that Irisviel wouldn't abuse that power to get a better view of the world around them, especially the place where Kiri was from.

Saber acted as a body guard in the meantime, dressed in a suit, though if anyone saw through her disguise as trying to dress up as a man they didn't say anything, even if it was rather obvious with her extreme feminine features and small lumps protruding from her chest.

Eventually however, the two landed at the beach and Irisviel took her shoes off before wading into the water where it was halfway up her calves.

"Irisviel, why is Kiritsugu not with us?" Saber asked from the shore line, though nearly regretted asking such a question as a sombre look overcame her acting master.

"Kiritsugu, knows what will happen to me by the end of the war." Irisviel stated as though it explained everything. It really did. Irisviel continued however. "He loves me so much in fact, that he wanted us to run away from this and have nothing to do with the Grail war, if only to spare me and our daughter Illya…" Irisviel paused as a look of regret overcame her face. "I think now though that maybe I should have accepted it back then too. I would have been able to see Illya grow up into a young lady, get married, and do all sorts of things with her…like a mother should." And while she said that last part with a whisper she asked herself what a mother really was.

She herself hadn't had one, being born from a tank with no emotions, only meant to serve. Now though, with Kiri's influence, she had grown, emotions blossomed, hate raged, love soothed. Then Illya was born and she was not sure what to do. Of course she loved her, she did not know why, but she did all the same…She was certain that it was the pain that she felt of never seeing Illya again dawned upon her was something akin to the pain that Kiri felt for her and thus could not look her in the eye lest he lose focus of his mission at hand. Secure the grail, grant the wish they shared, raise their daughter.

"Irisviel…" Saber muttered to herself, empathising what little she could with the woman. She herself had a daughter, much to her disgust…and disappointment. If she ever saw Merlin again, she would kill him a thousand times over for putting that thing on her for the briefest of moments as the witch had gotten a hold of her…seed, she shuddered at the use of the word, and used it to grow a homunculus that looked all too similar to herself. She of course held no love for it like Irisviel did for her own daughter, and she could not look at it either, as it served as a reminder of her failures. Ah, Lancelot…

Saber was torn from reminiscing her painful memories when a spike of mana permeated the air. A clear invitation for any nearby, no, anyone in the city with a servant really.

Irisviel appeared to notice her suddenly torn attention as she turned to face Saber with a firm expression that said she was ready for anything. "Saber?"

Saber merely nodded in response, confirming what had been left unsaid. "Should we go join them?" Saber asked. It would be rude to turn down the invitation after all. It was a rather noble way to get someone's attention, she had to give them that, no trickery involved what so ever.

"Let's go!" Irisviel nodded and turned in the direction of the docks and began walking as that was where the mana spike had originated from, for all but a moment before she realised something. "Oh!"

"What is it?" Saber asked mildly curious as to what could have stopped her acting master from coming with her.

"I forgot my shoes!" Irisviel cried out as she raced back up the sand and sat down to put her shoes on as Saber gained a slightly exasperated look before looking somewhat fondly at the woman. Surely everything would be fine.

* * *

"…" Rider looked unimpressed. Though to be fair it seemed to be her default setting. "It would appear that you are correct, though I am still curious as to why you know things you have no right knowing."

"…That's a secret." I confessed to rider as we watched lancer, Diarmuid Ua Duibhne wait patiently as Saber, Artoria Pendragon, walked calmly into the area in which Lancer and his master had decided the battle should take place. Unfortunately, we had yet to make any headway on Caster, if only because it didn't seem like the duo had set up shop yet in the storm water drainage tunnels.

"As you can no doubt tell, those two are lancer and saber," I explained through the link we shared because of the contract. I was currently safely tucked away at the mansion we had found, with my eyes closed, monitoring the environment through Riders own senses that filtered into me.

"_If you were a skilled mage you would even be able to see the world through my senses, though that may have to be limited to the words in the mind." Rider stated to me as we walked into the dusty old mansion. _

_It was certainly magnificent. Not quite the marble pillars that the Einzberns had supporting the roof over their heads, but intricate carvings in finely carved timber lined the walls and shelves that held a massive assortment of books. Basic knowledge and information, I was almost certain of it. What else would an esteemed family of mages leave here. Nothing important. It was the bread and butter of mages to not tell anyone their secrets because the power would diminish or some stupid crap that didn't make any sense. After all, if I had a bicycle and then another person got a bicycle, would the speed of my bicycle halve? No, of course not, only the value, not the results. Magi were jealous creatures that did not like to share, it was the only reason why they didn't share their mysteries with anyone._

"_So, you're saying that if I try and focus on this link we have through the command seals I can see everything you do?" I ignored the part where she said I would only be able to perceive words in her mind. I wasn't going to settle for that. Shirou Emiya had gone into his war with less and still got totalled nine out of ten times. There were only five good endings, and forty plus bad endings. If he had been able to communicate with Saber better or had known what he was doing half of the time he may have actually curb stomped the competition with his broken tracing ability._

"…_Yes." Rider looked at me unsure of what I was going to do. Though in hindsight it was obvious. She expected her young master to fail horrendously. Imagine to her surprise however when only three hours later he managed to perform the exact thing she said he would not be able to do. _

"_Ha!" The voice of her master sounded far deeper in her mind for some strange reason and had surprised her so much the first time she almost turned around and impaled her master on the spot with one of her metal stakes. Thankfully for the both of them she managed to rein herself in at the last moment._

"_Oh, wow…is this how you see the world?" I asked a little surprised with the faint traces of a substance wavering through the air as though caught by invisible currents and the outlines of objects up to a few hundred metres away through pure sound. _

_I idly pondered though if the reason that I was able to do this so quickly was because I was an adult in a child's body and thus had greater control over my mind…maybe, could be my latent spiritual ability though._

"_Yes." Truly, her master was surprising, though the true test would be to see if he was correct in predicting the location of the first real battle of the Grail War._

"Saber is Artoria Pendragon, King of the knights of the round table. Her noble phantasm is somewhat obvious, though there is another, invisible air. She uses it to hide her sword behind a buffer of wind to conceal her identity, though it can also double as a projectile weapon and propulsion." Rider's breath hitched a little in her throat at the proclamation. No doubt shocked that such a powerful servant was summoned, or it could be the fact that it was a girl rather than a man as history had portrayed her.

"The other is Diarmuid Ua Duibhne." I stated and could almost feel Rider snort through her link with me as though saying, 'pretty boy'. And I had to give it to her, he was born with a cursed love spot on his face that would ensnare the hearts of maidens far and wide, though the Rider class magic resistance skill of B-rank would be more than enough to ward it off should push come to shove.

"For now we should just observe. If the fight goes as it should, Saber should have her main Noble Phantasm disabled shortly after the fight begins because of her carelessness. Though if you must, both of Lancers weapons are Noble Phantasms, the longer one pierces, or rather, it dispels mana, while the shorter one inflicts wounds that cannot be healed."

Rider filed the information away for later. While knowledge of the individual was useful it did not always reveal their weaponry, only habits that you may be able to exploit and possible areas in which your opponent was likely to excel at.

Hm, Saber and Lancer were exchanging pleasantries. A short introduction before the fight, a useless notion. She would not have done so, only using whatever advantage of surprise she had to take out the competition as swiftly as possible. It was the logical choice, certainly not a noble one, though one that would see her far more likely to succeed and come out alive than die and leave her master alone…

Saber readied herself, a brief gust of wind picking up in the air within the vicinity before it died down and a burst of golden light signified the transformation from acting gentlemen to King of knights. The armour she wore certainly wasn't that of a kings however, her armour looking far more like what a woman would wear, an enlarged chest plate for her bust, one of the only parts that made sense, and a dress-like skirt to hold down the enlarged tassets that likely did little to actually shield her legs…it was impractical to say the least.

Needless to say, only the upper portion of Sabers body actually held anything close to resembling armour. Rider was somewhat disappointed really. Here her master had said she was some King of knights, wielder of the holy blade Excalibur. All she saw was an incompetent warrior in ill-fitting protective gear.

She was quickly forced to change her mind a little when the battle began, the knight girl was certainly ferocious like a lion, she would give her that. Coupled with her apparent skill of the blade and Rider had to begrudgingly admit that at her current level due to her underqualified master, even with her greater speed and dexterity, she would be hard pressed to stand her ground. She could only imagine what Saber was like if she did not have so many apparent flaws in her armour, both physically and metaphorically. There had to be some chips in that girl that would not heal. There were few other reasons besides a catalyst that would prove why she is here.

Then again she could be like her and summoned without any real wish, though she doubted it. Rider actually did have a wish, but it was not one she wanted fulfilled, she believed she did not deserve it.

"_And what is your wish master?" Rider asked as she held the boy on her back and dashed through the forest for the illusive mansion that he claimed would be here. She would play along for now._

"_To destroy the Grail." The sheer certainty in the statement was almost enough to stop her by itself, but the words themselves were what made her stop and contemplate what he had just said._

"_Why?" A reasonable question of course. There were also a multitude of reasonable answers that she would be inclined to agree with, such as 'man is not ready for that kind of power' with which she whole heartedly agreed, though who was she to say who could have what and who could not. Doing so would make her no better than Athena who said she could no longer be loved by others, except for her sisters of course, whom were also cursed._

"…_The Grail is cursed." He answered back as Rider noticed something on the edge of her senses, a large construct of some sort. Hoho, it appeared her master was correct after all._

"…" _Rider chose to pause a moment before replying. If what he said was true and the Grail is cursed, why was it so, and why didn't others know this. "Why?"_

_Her master sighed in response for a reason she could only expect to be a long conversation. "Basically, during the third war the Einzberns summoned an irregular servant instead of Berserker. They summoned the Avenger class servant. Unfortunately for them, Avenger was incredibly weak and died early on in the battle, being consumed by the lesser Grail as a fuel source for the wish that was to be granted. Instead a curse was spread from Avenger who turned out to be the Zoroastrian God Angra Mainyu, God of the worlds evils. The curse infected the lesser Grail before infecting the greater Grail and polluted the wish making device indefinitely. Any wish that comes about from the Grail will be the result of chaos."_

"_!" Rider was shocked. If such a thing were true the very world was at stake…not that she played a part in it anymore, though…She looked back at her master as he yawned tiredly and lay his head against her upper back. She supposed she could try give this child a happy ending even if she herself did not get one._

_Rider shook her head. What was she thinking? Her a Hero? She didn't even qualify as an anti-Hero. She was more monster than anything else._

Her wish could not be granted anyway if what her young Master had said was true, which by all things considered so far was incredibly likely considering events so far, though she still did not know why…she would abide her Masters wishes and not ask further unless it was critical for their survival. Instead, her wish would be replaced by the safety of her Master. That was all she could ask for. He seemed to be a kind enough boy, and he trusted her which was a much larger gift than anything she had received in her entire life since her fall even if he did not know her ident-…He knew who she was. He knew the identities of the other servants, there was little reason to believe that he did not know hers.

Her respect for him grew in that moment, if only slightly.

* * *

Kiritsugu observed the battle unfold between Lancer and his cute little Knight…Chivalry, pah! The mere word left a bad taste in his mouth. Such a code of conduct was only for those who deserved it, and they were few and far between, though he could safely say that his love Irisviel certainly worthy of such respect, possibly the only person besides his daughter that he would ever show his kind self to.

He broke from the stray thought nearly as soon as it occurred and began surveying the battlefield. Saber and Lancer were conveniently distracted for the moment so it gave him a brief period of respite where he could try and locate Lancers master.

For this he used the thermal-optic scope attached to his Walther-WA2000 to attempt to perceive any heat variations in the surroundings. It didn't take long to locate the figure hiding on top of the warehouse behind Lancer's initial starting position. Figures. The Magus he was about to kill was either very proud or very stupid.

"Maiya." He called his assistant through the radio transmitter he held close. "Do you see the man on the warehouse roof north-east of my position?" He was trying to see if she had a better vantage point than he did. If so, she would take the shot instead while he continued to scope the area.

"No. I don't see him." Maiya answered back. "Would you like me to move into a better position?"

Kiritsugu merely frowned in response. He'd take care of it himself then. "No, hold position, I'll take care of it." Kiritsugu said while unstrapping the bipod legs from the bottom of the Walther. It was in this moment something tingled on the back of his neck and made his hairs stand up on end. Something wasn't right.

Swerving around suddenly he pointed the scope of his gun at the crane tower Maiya initially pointed out to be their point of reconnaissance. While technically she had been right to choose such a point for the vantage position it was it was far too obvious for his liking. Instead he chose somewhere that could view most of the battlefield and sent Maiya to cover any blind spots he couldn't see.

On the tower however, was someone he didn't expect to see.

"Assassin!" He muttered to himself in shock. They were supposed to be dead…So that's how they wanted to play this game. "Maiya, I need you to keep an eye on Assassin. He's up on the crane tower. Whatever you do, don't shoot. You probably won't kill him, and he'll probably only kill you in turn."

"Understood." Maiya's sharp response came through as she turned from her position in the shadows of another warehouse bock. "Found him." Maiya confirmed that she visually located Assassin before resuming the silence that was tantamount to hiding in plain sight.

This would complicate things. He couldn't exactly kill Lancer's master now. Not without giving away his position to the enemy. It appears he'd have to spare Lancer's master for the time being. Though, he could tell some important information from the appearance of the being through the night vision scope. Reasonably well dressed, light hair, male and probably from the mages association in London. While that normally wouldn't be enough to determine someone's identity it was when he'd determined a majority of the identities of the masters beforehand. One of those being Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi.

A perfect match. All he had to do now was find out where the man lived currently and take out his base of operations with him still inside it. Piece of cake.

"Kiritsugu." Maiya's voice came through the radio once again. "Someone just killed Assassin."

What!?

He quickly went for the radio he possessed to gather clarification. "Who is it? What do they look like?" He demanded the answers even as he turned to look at the tower where this person was to get a better view himself. They were gone by the time he spotted the tower however. This wasn't good. Whoever it was could probably give Assassin a run for their money in terms of skill if they were able to eliminate them so easily.

It was a moment before Maiya responded, "A woman, possibly a Servant."

"Anything else?" He uttered, turning back to the battle at hand to get a better view on the task at hand.

"No," Maiya sounded uncertain for once, a rarity. "They were fast, very fast and impaled Assassin on something before they left."

Well, in any case, since there is more than one Assassin, unless the one he saw eliminated by Archer had somehow managed to avoid his fate which he considered unlikely, there were bound to still be more around. Not here certainly, it would be foolish to post more than one Assassin to this location as they would likely all be killed if they were detected by the more powerful classes in battle at the moment.

It was likely that whoever was commanding the servant that Killed Assassin didn't want their servants identity to be revealed so they killed Assassin while their back was turned. Rather ingenious now that he thought about it, but surely even they realised that there was little point to doing so if they saw the fight at the mansion the previous night. Never the less, denial of information on other enemies was a solid strategy as well as it would possibly pose more of a threat to Kirei and Tokiomi if they didn't know the identities of the servants currently fighting below.

…Come to think of it, without a scout here he could assassinate Kayneth now, or not. The other servant may still be around, probably is still around. Damn it.

* * *

Kirei opened his eyes momentarily. That was odd to say the least. One moment he had been staring through Assassin's own eyes and the next they had died with a metal stake protruding through their chest. And here he thought Assassin was supposed to be a master of Assassinations.

"Just because we are Assassin does not mean that the same methods cannot be used on us master." One of the shadows in the room sprung to life as a figure seemingly stepped out of the wall to his side where the shadows were at their thickest. "Should we send another to continue observing."

Kirei honestly didn't care. He would face Kiritsugu one way or another. For now though, he would defer to Tokiomi for the decision. "What should we do Tokiomi?" Short concise and to the point. It was all he was ever good at, well there was killing too, he supposed he was pretty good at that and enjoyed the looks on his victims faces as they realised their life was about to end…hm.

"No, not for now. Archer seems to have taken interest in the fight and is observing now. I'll take over from here." Tokiomi stated, severing the connection. He would likely inform Kirei later of the outcome of the battle.

* * *

Saber stepped back once again as she dodged a blow from Lancer. It was rather difficult to keep track of the two spears at the same time. Though in her mind she was trying to determine which one was the true blade. She doubted the man before her wielded more than one spear. All that was left at this point was to determine which one it was and its ability.

"Very good Saber!" Lancer praised her. It was starting to get on her nerves really. Here she was, King of knights, and while she had her code of chivalry that she would abide by, she could not help feel the welling annoyance that was Lancers blades.

Were they anyone else she likely would have killed them by now.

"But I wonder," Lancer strode forwards once more for an upward slash across Saber's armour. "How will you deal with this!" Lancer sprung into action once more as the upward slash was a diversion for the straight thrust of his longer spear which was skilfully deflected by Saber even as she was put on her back foot and forced to retreat.

Lancer pressed on in a flurry of slashes, though each one was deflected or dodged by Saber when she could spare the movement to get into a more comfortable position. Again and again, Lancer struck, scoring a minor cut below Sabers chin, as the longer spear narrowly missed her Jugular, making Lancer only hiss at the missed opportunity before a grin graced his face one more and he pressed on upending a door of one of the cargo boxes in the process.

It was raw skill against raw skill, neither giving each other room to move while the other pressed on, Saber finally scoring her first strike as a sliver of flesh just beneath Lancers elbow fell to the ground. Far more significant, though far less dangerous than the close call she had had a second ago.

Their positions had switched now, Lancer in front of Irisviel and Saber in front of the warehouse.

Saber paid it no mind however as she trusted Lancer to stick to his knightly duties as a chivalrous being and not attack her, dare she say it, friend. Once more they lunged together and exchanged blow for blow, though it was clear Lancer had the advantage here. Where she used her finely honed instincts, Lancer used his ability to learn, and learn he did. For every blow that was exchanged Lancer got a little bolder and closer to striking her than before. It was inhuman really, though she supposed that many a heroic spirit was in one way or another inhuman.

The problem it lead to though was that no matter how far her sharp instincts could allow her to see into the future, it was near useless against Lancer. In fact, he was more than likely aware of her ability now and compensating somehow.

Saber growled once more and put more power into her attacks, lunging into the battle more fiercely than before. One could say she was almost like a lion with the way she attacked Lancer with heavy powerful blows and golden hair.

Finally they separated once more, forcing Saber to tumble head over heel to get to a safe range where Lancer would not be able to immediately strike back at her. She idly noted that they were back in their starting positions again.

"Saber!" Irisviel called out as she doused the knight in healing magic to heal any injuries she may have accumulated in the battle. "Are you alright?"

Saber smiled at the support she was receiving. Irisviel had healed her wounds at a level she could only say was exemplary, for the age of course. She could remember Merlin, curse his soul, was capable of regenerating entire limbs at one point. Knowledge of this modern era told her the Magi here were not capable of such, though they could design appropriate replacements.

"I'm fine Irisviel. Stay back." Saber settled into a stance once more even as Lancer too had his wounds healed by his own hidden master. This would undoubtedly be difficult to end. Her raw physical stats were greater than Lancers to a degree, though his agility eclipsed hers to a degree she thought previously impossible.

"Lancer!" a male voice echoed from around the battle grounds. Undoubtedly Lancer's master. "Use your Noble Phantasm to end the battle."

Oh! Saber had to admit she was slightly curious as to what such a power could be, after all, Lancer would now reveal which of the spears he held was the true weapon.

"Of course," Lancer responded eagerly, clearly aware that Saber didn't know the true properties of his spears. "Master." He dropped the short spear to the ground with a clang and the dark bandages that covered his red spear evaporated in an instant revealing the blood red ruby glow of the entirely metal spear beneath.

It was sealed!

Saber cursed her caution as now Lancer had the full ability to use the mysterious properties of his spear as he wished. She could only hope it didn't result in a one hit kill.

"Prepare yourself Saber!" Lancer called to her. He was clearly confident in his use of the Noble Phantasm.

…Saber prepared herself to strike lancer down and end this battle.

Lancer lunged forwards once again, though Saber was calm, having predicted such a strike from him before hand. Her armour would protect her from the blow and she would strike him down in one hit. Clearly his weapon was not meant to be thrown and he had yet to call the name of his Noble Phantasm as most Hero's normally did to activate the weapons special properties. How foolish.

Her foresight was short lived however as Saber went to strike down Lancer, the impossible happened. Lancer's spear passed through her armour as if it did not exist and gouged a sizeable chunk of flesh from her midriff causing her to miss Lancer entirely in her strike and stumble to the side instead. Clearly Lancer's smile gave away more than she expected. It was predatory in the way he looked at her just before connecting the blow.

"You should watch yourself Saber. Overconfidence is unbecoming of a beautiful maiden such as yourself." Lancer went for the finishing blow but instead struck her sword as she managed to raise it in defence at the last possible second. The mana dispelled from the sword revealing its glory to those observing.

"Wha-?" Saber gasped, utilising the built-up momentum of Lancers weapon to propel her to safety rather than fight it.

She hunched over as she stood back up and felt the instant coolness of Irisviel's magic cure her grievous wound. That was a close call.

Saber frowned. Her armour and invisible air were useless against such a weapon that appeared to dispel mana as quickly as it formed…She would have to abandon her armour in favour of more mobility to end the fight.

"Your blade has revealed your true identity." Lancer smirked, clearly proud of his accomplishment to take Saber off guard. It was unlikely that she had faced an opponent such as him before so it was paramount that he end it as quickly as possible from here on out rather than play as he had been before. It would be best to do so before she came up with a suitable strategy to defeat him.

"Never would I have thought that I would face the King of knights." Lancer slid back a step, seemingly anticipating Saber's next move. He would not be wrong. "I'm honoured." Another step back.

Saber merely frowned in response jerking one arm to the side and shattering the seemingly fragile mana construct that protected her body before allowing it to re-join her other hand on the hilt of her blade. "I will not be tricked again Lancer!" Saber stated with an air of finality.

'Won't you now?' was the thought that passed through his mind in that instant, smirk never leaving his face.

That damnable smile of his never left his face and it infuriated Saber. Normally her enemies would be far more emotional, revealing their moves before they had even made them. Lancer though, Lancer smiled all the while as though it were all a big game...Well, Saber supposed it was in one aspect, she could not fault him for that. Still though…

Placing the shaft of the blade behind her a violent whirlwind picked up for the briefest of moments before she cried, "Invisible air!" before the same golden glean as before erupted from her blade on purpose this time, not bothering to hide the fact that her sword was that of a very recognisable legend as her identity was already known.

Saber launched forwards far quicker than before, her own predatory grin made its way onto her face. Finally!...

Only to falter a fraction later as Lancer's grin split his face and his back foot ripped the other spear out of the ground, caught it in his free hand and thrust out with it even as Saber struggled to change her course. She had committed too much to the blow and now she was going to pay for it.

Saber just barely managed to avoid disaster as the blade, rather than striking her squarely in the gut, severed a tendon in her left hand. She supposed it could have been worse, though now her greatest weapon had been disabled by carelessness on her part. No matter Irisviel would heal it in due time.

Only, the expected relief did not come when she landed in safety. What was happening?

"Irisviel!" Saber called back to the pale woman, confused as to why she hadn't already healed her. "Heal me!"

Confusion adorned the Homunculi's cute face as her expression scrunched up, not understanding what was happening. She had healed Saber, had she not?

"I already have Saber!" Irisviel called back to Saber, which only caused Lancer's smile to widen once more. Saber frowned. This was problematic.

"No more of that now Saber!" Lancer said, readying himself once more. "Fight me like a true warrior! A Knight!"

Saber decided to test the waters, if only to even the playing field slightly. "And what of you Lancer?" She questioned. "Are you not going to fight me like a warrior, a Knight, yourself or are you going to cower behind your Masters healing spells Diarmiud?"

Simple enough really, a love spot and those two spears of red and gold were just barely enough to give away the identity of Lancer. Now everyone knew.

"Cower?" Lancer stood up straight. "Of course not! Though a true warrior also uses all the advantages he can gain in single combat in order to serve his Master to the fullest extent. If I have a healer, I will use them. On the other hand, I would not be so cowardly to involve another in our fight to succeed. I do not need them." He settled back down into his ready stance.

The plan failed spectacularly.

Well it was worth a shot.

Lancer leapt into action once more.

"Enough you impudent Whelp!"

Before he was impaled by three different weapons in all the major region in his body. Head, chest, groin, all had been stuck with expert precision. He exploded into a shower of golden light before disappearing entirely.

"You dare besmirch my treasure!"

* * *

"Ahh," I sighed to myself with resignation. "That wasn't supposed to happen."

* * *

**Word count: 9772**

**Cannon? Where did you go? Hello?**

**Servant stats:**

**Class: Saber**

**Name: Artoria Pendragon**

**Current Status: Alive**

**Master: Kiritsugu Emiya**

**Current Status: Alive**

**Strength: B (Check out these muscles)**

**Endurance: A (not quite a living tank)**

**Agility: A (Gotta go fast!)**

**Mana: A (Hmm, Dragon core?)**

**Luck: D (She needs to gamble more often to improve her luck stat...or get a new master. Grail-kun approves)**

**N.P: A++ (King of the empty fortress, for none shall stand in my path)**

**Class skills:**

**Magic resistance: A (Enemy of all mages)**

**Riding: B (Doesn't know the lewd word 'mount')**

**Personal skills:**

**Charisma: B (Talks good)**

**Instinct: A (Does this make her an animal?)**

**Mana Burst: A (Grenades are literally attached to her feet and sword)**

**Noble Phantasms:**

**Invisible air: ...I don't know what you expect. It's air that's invisible and can wreck shit. **

**Rank: C Anti-Unit**

**Excalibur: Sword gifted by the Fairies. Possesses tremendous Divine power.**

**Rank: A++ Anti-Fortress**

* * *

**Servant stats:**

**Class: Lancer**

**Name: Diarmuid Ua Duibhne**

**Status: Deceased (Poor lancer)**

**Master: Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi**

**Status: Alive **

**Strength: B (Check out these muscles)**

**Endurance: C (quite squishy)**

**Agility: A+ (...Faster?)**

**Mana: D (Not magically inclined in the slightest)**

**Luck: E (Is this why he died?)**

**N.P: B (It's not the size that matters, but what you do with it that counts, is what this should say, but he's dead, soooo...)**

**Class skills:**

**Magic resistance: B (Does ok against mages, especially slow ones)**

**Personal skills:**

**Eye of the mind (True): B (Reads the flow of battle and predicts the outcome of the enemy with precision provided the user is not in immediate danger of losing their life)**

**Love Spot: C (All ladies from across the land flock to you because of a mole you have under your eye...ew)**

**Noble Phantasm:**

**Gae Buidhe: Delivers irreversible damage until the affected region is removed or the weapon destroyed**

**Rank: B Anti-Unit**

**Gae Dearg: Ignores magical defences and attacks. Dispels them completely.**

**Rank B: Anti-Unit**

* * *

**Servant stats: **

**Class: Archer**

**Name: Gilgamesh**

**Status: Alive**

**Master: Tokiomi Tohsaka**

**Status: Alive**

**Strength: B (Average)**

**Endurance: B (Nothing special)**

**Agility: B (pretty slow)**

**Mana: A (Yeesh)**

**Luck: A (Probably the reason why he's so rich. Wonder how many Casino's he's put out of business)**

**N.P: EX (Literally God)**

**Class skills:**

**Independent**** Action: A (Takes long walks under the sunset pretty often. Returns home when Tokiomi uses the move [Bone throw]. Can last a week without a master assuming minimal Mana consumption)**

**Magic resistance: C (Could kill him with this)**

**Personal skills:**

**Charisma: A+ (Somehow)**

**Divinity: B (Literally two thirds a God)**

**Golden rule: A (Inexhaustible riches...I wish I were this rich)**

**Noble Phantasms:**

**Enuma Elish: Gilgamesh's prized weapon. Too proud to use it though against weaklings, would almost rather die. Literally splits space in half with compressed wind**

**Rank: EX**

**Gate of Babylon: All the weapons in history you've ever heard of can be shot out of glowing portals at something like mach 1 or 2**

* * *

**Servant stats:**

**Class: Assassin**

**Name: Hundred hand Hassassin (Cooler name)**

**Status: 98 out of 100 (I think)**

**Master: Kirei Kotomine**

**Status: Plotting...I mean, Alive**

**Strength: C (It's alright I guess)**

**Endurance: D (literal punching bag x 100)**

**Agility: A (Pretty good. I don't think this stat relates to speed though...should be renamed Dex)**

**Mana: C (Almost completely dependent on the master for more juice)**

**Luck: E (These guys can literally drop like flies)**

**N.P: B (Second decent stat)**

**Class Skills:**

**Presence concealment: A+ (...Are you sure about that?)**

**Personal Skills:**

**Expert of many specialisations: A+ (Can do almost anything as long as it's related to killing something)**

**Librarian of stored knowledge: C (Possible to recall almost anything, even if not acknowledged at the time with a successful luck check...good luck here)**

**Noble Phantasm:**

**Delusional Illusion: Can split his soul into a hundred pieces and operate all of them at the same time as different individuals. Sounds like a better version of Voldemort.**

**Rank: B+ Anti-Unit (self)**


	3. CH 3: Compulsion

**I'm rather impressed a fic like this picked up so many followers so quickly. Thank you all and to those who reviewed the story.**

**Chapter 3: Compulsion**

* * *

"…Well that was unexpected." Tokiomi said to himself as he watched his servant step into the battle and instantly kill Lancer. Still, one down, five to go.

Tokiomi wondered if he should pull back Archer for a brief moment before deciding against it. He'd killed Lancer, so he suppose the servant earned some leeway for the moment at least. Originally he'd only expected Archer to go in and observe the battle in spirit form, not this, though it could be counted as a contribution to the greatest cause of all. Securing the Grail.

Of course, however, he had not expected the King of Hero's Gilgamesh to act so rashly. It was quite frankly, unbefitting of a ruler if he were to be frank with himself. Not that he'd ever tell Archer that. It was a one-way ticket to both losing favour with the King and possibly having his head removed from his shoulders.

Perhaps the Great man thought more with his Genitals than he did his brain. He could see it now. Him attempting to court the King of Knights and failing spectacularly. Sure she was a beautiful woman and any man would fall for her, though she was still a servant at the end of the day and had to die. So did Archer…He'd have to leave the command seals to the end of the War so he could command the King of Hero's to slay both the woman and himself. Even if the Grail rules said it would grant the wish of a servant too, he knew better. All seven were required in order to perform the ceremony and the last master standing would be the one to make the wish.

For now, he would have to simply curry favour with the pompous man and tolerate his behaviour. He was far more powerful than Tokiomi could hope to deal with without the command seals. Well beyond most Heroes and even some Gods, such was the depth of the man's treasury.

* * *

This was it. Cannon was officially fucked. Lancer was supposed to survive past even the point where caster died. I mean, sure the wrong Rider was summoned and he was a background character by that point but still, he was supposed to kill his master and Master's wife! Now there was a vengeful, possibly very upset Kayneth out there somewhere wanting vengeance for being defeated so easily. He would likely seek me or another weak master out and plan to take our servant so he could continue in the running.

Not to mention…

"_Why did you kill Assassin exactly Rider?"_ I asked her through the link we held. I had neither ordered it nor did I think it was particularly troublesome.

"_You don't want me to kill Assassin?"_ Rider asked back as though saying 'he was right there! What else was I supposed to do?', clearly confused and apparently unawares of Assassins ability to blatantly multiply like he had some shadow clones popping out of his closet as new sets of clothes for every occasion.

"_Riiight. It's all well and good, just there's probably around a hundred more of him out there somewhere."_ My deadpan could not get any harder.

"_Are you saying I didn't just kill Assassin?"_ her tone was mildly frustrated that she hadn't finished the job.

"_You killed one Assassin. There are still more out there. The Master of Assassin had one attack Archer's Master's house last night got him killed and then promptly went and hid in the church as a guise for protection in the rest of the war since it is officially the only neutral territory in the War. That makes two Assassin deaths so far, who's to say there aren't more?"_ Damn cheaters!

"_Understood." _Rider could not sound more robotic unless she adopted a voice that made her sound like a machine.

Our conversation ended there. Not much else to talk about really other than, well, Archer. Still as pompous and 'Kingly' as shown in the anime and what little I had read of the light novel. He was already saying that Artoria should become his wife…I don't remember him being that forwards. Oh well, since he was there now and there was no one to interfere for a while besides Berserker and Kariya, may as well kill Tokiomi.

Sounds like a plan! Hopefully that independent action skill of his doesn't come back to bite me in the arse. He was after all one of the biggest problems in the next war, or he will be…damn timeline is getting me confused.

Not like Tokiomi was supposed to be alive at the end of the war anyway, and Rin never did find out who killed her father, so as long as there is some hush money involved I don't think the fake priest would tell unless it suited him in some scenario. None that I could think of at the moment anyway.

"_Rider leave the area and head to the Tohsaka mansion."_ The new command that would hopefully seal the man's fate. Rin already had the magic crest I believe so it wasn't like she would lose anything valuable…too valuable.

"_You want me to kill Archer's master?"_ Rider asked to confirm.

"_Yes. Though if you fail to do that, see if you can't place Blood Fort Andromeda down around the property."_ It would affect Tokiomi, though it wouldn't immediately incapacitate him like it did the students at Homurahara academy. Preferably it wouldn't be activated however and would instead draw Tokiomi out of his house for his own safety…Or she could just use her Pegasus and nuke the place, that was always an option…No, too mana intensive, and I don't think I have the reserves to bring her back to full power over night, well that and I don't think I could ever face Rin when she comes back and sees her house a smoking crater.

I suppose I could always bomb the Matou's instead…

* * *

It was a little less than five minutes that went by by the time Rider had managed to run the full five Kilometres from the docks to the Tohsaka residence and she had yet to detect the presence of Archer in the home. She had to admit it was a rather bold move, to attack a magi in his own home, and not one that could be done lightly. Though, her master had correctly deduced that most modern forms of Thaumatergy wouldn't affect her unless it was of sufficient strength, and even then, her endurance stat, while weak compared to some of the other servants, should be enough to pull her through some situations with the magus.

She felt the air as she stalked forwards, the giant nails she had used to kill Assassin in her grip already. The bounded field over the home wasn't overtly complex like she or her master had suspected it to be, though she would without a doubt be noticed as soon as she entered the abode. She was no infiltrator, though she could fill the seat as a semi-decent one. It was likely best she stay where she was for the moment as she felt the magical currents brush against her skin. It would be trivially easy to locate the master from where she was. The only problem being in how long it would take her to reach the location where the master had decided to hide and whether or not he would use his command seal to summon his servant. No, that was a certainty.

Rider's master still had a full set of command seals as well, so if things became too dangerous he could always summon her back in case things became too dangerous…Then again, no one was watching this property at the moment were they, unless those few Assassins that had tried to kill her on the way over here reported directly to the man of the house. Then there was a slight chance that they could determine her path and warn him.

It was best she did this quickly.

* * *

Saber could only look on in shock as Lancer was killed before her. This was meant to be an honourable duel, yet another servant had appeared out of nowhere and slain the man before they could finish their fight.

What he said next was almost as outrageous.

"You dare besmirch my treasure!" It had an air of authority and arrogance that Saber did not think she had ever heard in all her years of living. The man's very presence demanded she bow to him, yet she could not as she was a King. Only after that fact was revealed did Saber know this man was a ruler of sorts with what must be an incredibly high charisma stat.

Instead, Saber merely wanted an answer for why he had interrupted her battle with Lancer. She would find out who he was after.

Casting a cursory glance at how the man had caused the destruction of the land they were on she could only firmly believe that he was Archer. After all, what other classes utilised projectiles…that weren't throwing implements? She'd seen many an Assassin use throwing weapons, though none like the man before her.

"Why would you do that?" Saber's horror showed in her tone of voice as well as her defensive position.

"…Why?" The Gold cloaked man asked back as though it were obvious and she was stupid for even asking. "I am the King!" He boldly proclaimed. "I can do whatever I want. And when someone is going to try and kill my soon to be wife! They will be punished!"

All Saber could hear then was the so-called King's proclamation that she was going to be his wife…unless he was referring to Irisviel?

"Wife?" the sound was subdued.

"Yes." Archer agreed with Saber's initial assessment. "Anything in this world is mine for taking, be it women, weapons, wine or riches. For I am the King."

"That's absurd!" Saber shouted back, "You can't own the whole world! How would you even tend to such a thing!"

An eyebrow quirked on Archer's face. Truly, the ignorance. "That is what I have all of these loyal servants for is it not? To tend to my garden." He gestured to the area around him, though it was clear he was referring to the people of Earth.

Saber could only growl at the proclamation. She was no one's servant…well perhaps for the duration of the war. That didn't matter! She was a King! A knight of the round table.

"And you my dear flower have been invited to join me." Archer extended a hand forwards as though being touched by him would be like being blessed by a God. He probably thought as much too. "Now come!"

Saber merely shook her head, seemingly disappointed in the so-called King. "I will have to decline. I know not even of your name. What kind of wife would I make if I did not know the name of my own Husband." A ruse. Truly, Saber would never accept a marriage proposal, much less from a man as vile as he. To suddenly proclaim someone as your wife just because you believe yourself to be King and you demand it? …Well, Saber did marry Guinevere against her wishes, both of their wishes, though that was to strengthen the bonds with the people, she wouldn't have done so otherwise…though Guinevere certainly seemed to like Lancelot more.

Saber once again shook her head. It was no time to be reminiscing about the past.

"Ho!" Archer seemed somewhat impressed that the young lady known as Saber would be so eager to learn her husbands name. "Warming up to me already are we? Though I am disappointed that you could not recognise me already." A hungry smile graced his lips then. "I suppose I can indulge you, wife to be."

Yes, just a little more…

"My name is Gilgamesh, King of Hero's!"

"!" Irisviel gasped and Saber could only feel the gradually growing sinking feeling in her chest grow. If such a thing were true, there was almost no chance for winning the war. The glowing portals, Gate of Babylon, is the treasury of Gilgamesh, from the tale, 'the epic of Gilgamesh'. Such a treasury was said to have held all the worlds weapons and jewels, not to mention the finest of wines like he claimed. Such a thing could only mean that each and every weapon that came from the portal was in its own right of Noble Phantasm class.

"!" another gasp this time, though it came directly from the gold cloaked man himself, even as he did his best to try and hide it and cover it with a growl instead.

What had distracted him from the enactment was the swath of darkened mana particles coalescing into an armoured form at one of the entrances to the docks. Said form rose slowly, like an animal realising that its prey had just come to it and prepared to pounce.

"^&*^#^%(**!" The thing in armour screamed before launching forwards to Archer.

Who could have been insane enough to bring their servant into this fight? One was already dead and if Saber had her way about it Archer would be too by the time the night was over. Instead, another servant was introduced to the veritable blood bath despite there being few to actually kill.

"You dare look upon me filth!"

As quickly as the time before Archer sneered and fired more weapons from the Gate of Babylon behind him in an effort to put the mad beast down. He was rather shocked when instead, said beast performed at a level of skill that would put all sane men to shame. Surely there must be some benefits to being mad after all no?

Grabbing the first weapon to approach by the hilt, the creature that could only of the Berserker class wrenched it backwards and destroyed the second weapon with the first, both blades meeting their demise in the sudden clash.

Archer was both entertained and infuriated by the turn of events. On one hand, a beast that was rather entertaining to fight, on the other, he had touched his weapons and sullied them with his hands. Oh well, he could always get more after he'd killed the mad dog to sate his anger.

Archer's scowl deepened. He fired again, a volley of weapons approaching this time, while Saber stood still, happy to stand to the side and wait out the fight. While from a certain standpoint it wouldn't be honourable to wait out the fight and kill the one who was tired at the end of the confrontation, a true hero summoned for the war should expect no less than to be prepared at all times, even straight after battle. She remembered having employed such strategies against her enemies when she was still the King of England. They were rather effective. She could only hope they were as effective now as they were then.

The same process repeated itself for a full minute, however. Archer fired his weapons at Berserker and Berserker caught each and every single one of them before using them to either try and attack the Gold cloaked man, or defend himself with the captured weapons.

The sheer skill Berserker displayed was nothing to scoff at either. Such a formidable opponent must have had great control over himself in his past life to still be capable of such high levels of combat even while embroiled in the thralls of madness. In such a manner, the conflict between Archer and Berserker seemed to carry on forever even though it was a scant minute long. Normally such battles would be won cleanly within the first quarter of a minute, though that was against opponents of considerably less skill.

"Enough!" Archer roared, his heel stamped down on the lamppost on which he stood. He opened the gate one last time and fired a new weapon, one that looked like a large golden dart, Vajra. This too though was caught by Berserker, though he could not seemingly utilise it to its full effect as he had done the others. Instead he redirected it into the ground where it made the earth shatter and the two weapons he'd buried in the ground at his sides to spring up and land in Berserkers hands, a Halberd and an axe. He threw the two at the place where Archer stood before he could react properly and fire new weapons to defend himself.

The light post was cut in two and Archer was forced to land on the ground beneath him.

"You dare!" Archer's voice raised, clearly unsettled by the results of the confrontation. "Making me stand on the same ground as you! I who stand in the heavens!"

"^&&^&(*$%." Berserkers response was only audible as a pained and frustrated growl before he sprung forwards once more, displaying even more power as the mana in the air coalesced around him and boosted his speed even further. One could almost say he possessed the skill prana burst, though that wouldn't be true as the Berserker class was known for being rather greedy when it came to mana consumption and it would not surprise the observers of the battle if Berserker had forcefully drawn more mana from his master in order to bolster his combat ability.

Such an increase in ability surprised Archer so much that he almost flinched when Berserker was upon him in an instant, though he failed to land a hit as a weapon from Archers treasury landed between the two cutting Berserker off, the mad man's reactive ability saving him by a mere hairs breadth.

It was in this moment Archer regained his footing in the battle and forced Berserker to retreat.

"!" Archer stiffened for a moment before he was whisked away in a flash of light. Called by his Master perhaps?

"%^" Berserker turned to Saber. "#$#$#^$$" He screamed at Saber before grabbing the severed lightpost and beginning the battle once more.

"Irisviel!" Saber cried blocking an overhead swing from an object that should have been cut clean in two by her blade Excalibur, only to hold up and have red veins spread across the surface and a black haze ignite around it as it did for Berserkers armour. "Run!"

* * *

It only took a moment longer and she located a moving mana source in the vicinity, underground to be precise. A moment longer and Rider had traced out the path she would take in her mind and what she would need to do to open the basement door. A little exertion of physical might never went astray.

The chains rattled and snaked behind her as she leapt forwards, breaking through the bounded field a moment later and the front door instantly after, it provided the shortest route to the basement and therefore gave less time for Tokiomi to summon Archer.

Her speed in that moment was so great thanks to a quick application of her monstrous strength skill that she was at the basement door a fraction of a second later, timber floorboards splintering with every step, not even long enough for Tokiomi to raise his arm as most did to utter the command spell. Subsequently, all that could be heard was a door being ripped off of its hinges and stone cracking beneath feet as the woman with serpentine grace maneuvered in such a way that she should have clipped the edge of the doorway with how close and tight of a turn she made.

Never the less, she made it through, and the tail of her weapons followed shortly after, doing exactly what she had managed to avoid.

It was only a few steps now. A glow of candle light shone from the room at the base of the stairs and the ever-present mana lit up as a command spell was being invoked. It would no doubt be a close call.

Only the saving grace of the delay between invocation and activation of the command seal that saved her as she rounded the corner just as the command seal reached the apex of its glow. Throwing her weapon of choice at the man seated behind his workbench, with a clear mix of surprise and sheer horror that someone would have the audacity to come to his home and kill him, especially after the display Archer had given the previous night of him killing Assassin with pitiful ease.

Archer's golden form materialised a moment too late as the nail pierced Tokiomi's skull, splattering grey matter on the wall behind him.

A quick yank of the chain and the nail was separated from his head, pulling the body to the ground in one go, before the weapon and user dematerialised into spirit form, even as Archer's Gate of Babylon opened in that instant to kill the woman he could clearly see before him. He almost hit her too, if it weren't for the fact that he had aimed for her head he would have. Fortunately for Rider it was one of the first pieces to go and the rest of her body followed a moment later.

* * *

That was close. A moment later and I would have used the command seal to call back Rider, even now I think I was cutting it too close. All's well that ends well I suppose. I shouldn't have risked her life like that though for a single command seal even if it was tantamount to using true magic when it was used, capable of summoning a servant through time and space to the aid of the master or bolstering an attack that would not have previously scratched an enemy…yeah.

"_Rider."_ I began slightly nervous with how she might respond to my actions. _"Are you alright?"_

I received no immediate reply. It was then that I though that I had seriously fucked up. No response. I pondered for a few moments wondering if I had over stepped my bounds, almost sacrificing her life in order to kill someone. It certainly wasn't her normal play style. I remembered that she preferred low risk high return tactics most of the time in the fifth war. It mostly consisted of Guerrilla warfare and the occasional direct battle.

"_I'm fine Master."_ Riders stern voice came through.

Ahh, not good.

"_Next time you ask me to do something like that however, please use a command seal to bring me out. A moment later and I would have received more than a cut to the cheek."_ She reported, clearly a little upset with the outcome of the intervention of Archer despite his failure and her success. Clearly a little too close a call for her liking.

"_Sorry."_ Was the only response I could give to her. I was never really good with apologies, mostly because I thought I was right most of the time. Though I do try to own up for my mistakes when they are obvious, such as now. It was a stupid idea really, trying to kill Archer's master. Fortunately no one important was harmed, those being myself and Rider…in any significant way least.

"There is something that I must ask you though Ma-…Kane." Rider materialised me a split second later causing me to jump in my seat and nearly shit my pants. Fucking jump scares. "Do you feel any different at the moment?" mirth hidden within her voice.

I raised an eyebrow. What did she mean? "Noooo?"

Rider twisted her head in contemplation. Something had caught her attention. "Your prana output has increased…" She stated it as a simple fact, though the very mention of my magical supply growing was almost had me jumping with joy. "It is still not enough however to sustain me for long. If you found a way to increase it further, you may be able to sustain me even after I use one of my Noble Phantasm's."

Wait, did she just say she would disintegrate just from using a Noble Phantasm of hers? And I had asked her to use Blood Fort Andromeda if need be? Sure the thing sucked mana out of anything within its boundary but it cost mana to start up! If she had used it she could have died!

The thoughts must have flittered across my body in someway as she responded a moment later. "I would not worry about that right now Kane. You had the right idea, if a little under planned."

I glared at her even as she reverted to her spirit form to preserve energy.

Close calls like that certainly won't be welcome in the future. Certainly not now when killing such an esteemed magus would no doubtedly paint a target on mine and Rider's heads, however unlikely it was that her appearance was revealed. She would not be able to traverse the city as freely as she pleased anymore, at night anyway…especially when reconnaissance was far faster in their physical forms than spirit. The one downside to spirit forms. You could travel fast in both for sure, but the spirit form severely limited mobility to a degree that the physical body did not even though it did leave a servant open to attack…

I would have to traverse the city at night with rider at my back in order for her to somewhat effectively hide herself until the war was over while we hunted for masters and servants with the occasional look during daytime. The fewer people who knew Rider's face, the better. Even better yet was that they didn't know whom her master was, so I would merely stand relatively close by, a few blocks at the least, while Rider handled her business. The likelihood of anyone believing a six-year-old child was behind one of the masters was relatively low if you didn't count Caster and his master who were no doubt distracted at the moment cutting children to pieces…

My hands balled into fists. I was going to kill him sooner or later. Preferably the former.

Breath in…Breath out…

For now though, I glanced down at my hands seeing the green flames dance across my finger tips. There was no substance to them quite yet. It was a miracle that I'd managed to use them to the extent I had before when I jumped out of the window of the apartment I used to live in. No doubt considered a crime zone now, under investigation for two dead adult parents and their missing son.

The only way I was going to get somewhere quickly was to find out what it was exactly that I felt such a powerful emotion for.

Water? I swam a lot, though I would not say I felt any great emotion for the life-giving liquid. Still a viable possibility though, so I would have to think about it.

I had no personal possessions that I greatly admired or loved from my parents, or anyone else for that matter.

Myself…That was a possibility. I was no narcissist, though I was never a good judge of self, so that may be subject to speculation. I also remember performing self-harm a few times in my previous life because I thought myself to be useless…yet, I tried to convince myself almost every day that I was amazing, fortunately it worked most of the time. So much good that turned out to be. I died…somehow?

Well, now I suppose there was something more amazing about myself. I had fucking super powers! Kind of…I suppose the human body had always fascinated me. I had dreamed about becoming immortal once, thinking up of some actual viable scientific solutions to the case. Store my genetic data in its raw unaltered form along with some genetic editing tools and I could effectively reset my DNA every time it became too damaged. In theory one could live forever if their DNA was never damaged.

No matter. It was impossible as far as both the technological and Moonlit worlds were concerned. Neither had the technology nor the expertise to use such information.

I'm getting off track.

Standing up I manoeuvred throughout the mansion to the master bedroom. I would have slept here, except the room was far too large for my liking. Useful for a manner of other things however. Though, I had to say the decidedly pink frilly silk sheets were a definite turn off and I couldn't come to convince myself it was worth the effort to change them. Well, that and I am rather tired at the moment.

I moved on, to one of the smaller bedrooms on the second floor. Much smaller, around the size of my old bedroom back at the apartment. Black and white bed sheets this time. Still expensive looking silk however. I shrugged. What could you do? I certainly hadn't ever slept in silk before and I was keen to try.

The bathroom at the end of the hall had running water, somehow. Unfortunately, it was all freezing cold, so I had to limit my normally ten to fifteen minute shower to a mere minute to thoroughly wash myself off in order to get out as quickly as possible. I wished I were warmer…

A heat washed over my body in that moment as I stood naked in the shower. The water no longer felt cold. In fact it felt quite refreshing, though not as warm as I'd initially hoped.

Still, I stepped out of the shower and looked at the veins in my arm and watched the skin pulse as my heart beat, pushing blood through my body as it went. Blood, the one thing nearly all living creatures to date required to survive. I do like my blood. So red and full of iron, almost too bad I was anaemic in my previous life. The ruby red liquid of the universe.

A body based fullbring it was then using my blood as the source. Problematic to be sure. I would have to find a way to utilise it properly without killing myself through blood loss.

I couldn't concern myself with that at the moment however, mastering Bringer light would have far more benefits in the short term than mastering my Fullbring. Increasing my immediate strength and speed would allow me to run away from the inevitable fights I would encounter while wandering through the streets looking for other servant and master duos. The Einzburn of course would be holed up in their little castle at the other end of Fuyuki when they weren't out and about, while the remaining masters of Caster, Assassin, Berserker could be anywhere within the city at any given time. Archer was probably off sulking somewhere…

…

Enough was enough. It was time for bed for this six-year-old body of mine.

* * *

Kariya panted, wheezed and occasionally gasped as the sweat rolled down his brow and dripped into the alleyway he had found himself squatting in. It was official, he was a squatter. All for Sakura, he reminded himself again and again. No one, especially not a young sweet little girl such as Sakura should be subjected to the horrors of the Matou magecraft. Yet here he was, fighting for her freedom because damn Tokiomi had gone and sold her to the Matous under the pretense that it was good for her future and would be a waste of talent otherwise.

Tokiomi should have listened to what he told him. The Matou's aren't something that someone would willingly join. Take him for instance. Instead of carrying out his role as he had as the heir to the Matou lineage, he cast it aside and hoped for it to rot away into dust as time passed. Thankfully not even his brother or his son possessed the necessary gifts required to pass on the craft. Instead, that old cretin Zouken had taken in an innocent girl and thrown her into the pit. She was technically past the point of no return already, though he would fight anyway and give the grail to Zouken so she wouldn't have to suffer anymore.

In that effort to become a proper magus before the war he had cast himself in as well and vowed to punish, if not kill Tokiomi, as he had tried by facing his Berserker against Gilgamesh King of Heros. His servant had performed even better than expected, even almost managed to land a blow though he was taken away by what he could only assume to be a command seal. It had forced him to use one of his own to prevent Berserker from pursuing Saber. Any longer and Kariya would have suffered terrible Prana loss and deprivation.

…It seemed someone had beat him to Tokiomi, as his Familiar insects had told him so when he went to inspect the Tohsaka property where he was sure Tokiomi would be holed up for nearly the entire Grail war.

He would personally congratulate the person who had done it and taken them out for drinks if he knew who they were before asking for a pact. Of course it was sheer lunacy to consider such a thing with an unknown mage, though he still did wonder if he should, and then ask for their help to free Sakura…

Unfortunately he knew better though. There were likely worms inside of Sakura that would compel her to stay with the Matou's until Zouken had released her. Not to mention the ones inside his own body, they still moved under his skin even now. It wouldn't surprise him if the old man was watching even now. Such was the depravity of the old man.

* * *

Saber had found the trip to the Einzbern castle genuinely terrifying, not because Caster had decided to reveal himself on the way claiming that she was in fact some holy maiden called Jean. No, the true terror walked right next to her with a wide grin on her face and a content look in her eyes. Truly, if a servant wished to die of something akin to a heart attack, all they needed to do was get in a car with Irisviel. Absolutely no compunction for the road rules what so ever and a need to go so fast around bends that it had sent Saber skidding around in the seat of the car.

The…other problem however, was Kiritsugu. While she normally disliked the man for the way he addressed things like combat, preferring to kill people from shadows and not face to face much like the Assassin of the war, she could not say that that was the problem tonight.

"Archer's master is dead." It was a simple statement, but one that shocked her to the core. She had honestly expected such a move to come from her master, though the tone in which the statement was delivered told her that he had not killed Archer's master.

It was Irisviel's turn to be shocked however as Saber was still thinking about relieving herself of some bile she thought would come up in the car. "Wha-! How?" Irisviel knew just as well as Kiritsugu now that the little performance put on by Archer the night before was just a ruse and a display of power to deter the other masters from attacking him.

"During the confrontation with Archer at the docks." Kiritsugu was hunched over a table displaying a map of Fuyuki, crossing off the Tohsaka mansion. "A master used the distraction to get close to the Tohsaka mansion where Tokiomi was situated and sent their servant in to kill him. They must have possessed some level of magical knowledge or a magic resistance skill of at least B-rank to get through the bounded fields unhindered. This means that the one who killed Tokiomi is either a servant with it as a class skill or Caster himself." Kiritsugu explained, trying to solve who in fact killed Tokiomi.

"It can't be Caster however as they would hypothetically be capable of disabling the bounded fields that were triggered. That and the fact that Archer seemed to disappear involuntarily from his fight with Berserker meaning that Tokiomi used a command seal to summon Archer at the last second but was unable to save his master in time. This means that it would normally be one of the three knight classes however Tokiomi commanded one, Lancer is dead, and Saber was fighting both at the docs. And Assassin the only one with the actual skills to get past the barrier undetected…Assassin is-was in league with Archers master through Kirei Kotomine. That leaves just one, Rider."

It was a little disturbing that a servant had effectively killed a master in the midst of their combat with none of them realising it had happened. The master whom had sent Rider to kill Tokiomi may have had a death wish of some kind if they had not succeeded.

"We can only assume that Rider got away from Archer before she was killed. Until evidence proves otherwise at least."

That caught Saber's attention, "She?" perhaps they could derive the identity of the servant, no matter how slim a chance it was.

Kiritsugu looked at her for a moment before nodding. "Yes." He moved over to the laptop sitting on the other side of the table they were at before turning the projector on that sat behind the laptop. "I have familiars with recording devices attached to them in the city watching key locations such as the Tohsaka mansion."

A few clicks on the keyboard later and Kiritsugu dimmed the lights allowing the image of Rider to be displayed. As grainy as the footage was, it didn't matter. Saber was sure she would be able to identify the woman at a single glance with features like those.

Long purple hair that touched her ankles, a red blindfold to cover her eyes and two large metallic nails in her hands. Her clothes were nothing to be impressed by as Saber thought they were merely there to cover her for modesty's sake. The only parts that could be classified as armour were the metallic bands and shin guards that were on her body.

A moment later and Rider disappeared into the house, the front door having been knocked off of its hinges, shattered into a million pieces.

Kiritsugu looked at Irisviel and Saber then. "Unless either of you know a servant who looks like that it could take a while to identify her."

Saber couldn't say she did. Neither could Irisviel.

"Also," Kiritsugu decided to add the next part on as mostly an after thought. "I killed Lancer's master."

* * *

"_-sama! Archibald-sama!" The name called of the man that should have left the hotel by now as it had received a call a short half half hour before hand about a bomb threat within._

"_Excuse me." Kiritsugu called out to the man trying to search for Lancer's master._

"_Yes? How can I help you?" The attendant asked._

"_I am Archibald. I have left the building." Kiritsugu said in a passive voice, clearly apathetic to what was happening._

"_Uh…" The attendant wasn't so sure about the mans claim to be Archibald. Wasn't he blonde? It was a foreign name too and this man was clearly Japanese. "I don't thi-"_

_Clearly just saying he was someone wouldn't work so a quick application of prana to his voice induced a hypnosis in the man to believe him. "I Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi and my wife Sola Ui have left the building safely."_

"…_Right." The attendant crossed Archbald off of the list he held. "That's everyone then." He affirmed to himself while still within ear shot of Kiritsugu who only pulled a detonator out of his pocket and pressed the trigger._

* * *

"How could you?!" Saber roared. "He had no servant. He was no longer involved in the war!"

Kiritsugu merely weathered her assault of words before returning his short reply. "He could have killed another master and taken their servant couldn't he?"

"!" Saber was taken back slightly. That was true…it still didn't make it right though!

"If he had he probably would be looking for Archer right now. After all Archer is without a Master and the person that thought to kill Tokiomi while Archer was absent made a rather good if foolish decision. It is unlikely that any other servant in this war will be capable of defeating Archer and so they cut off his anchor to sever the connection. A viable battle tactic. Without the master a servant will just wither away and die, provided of course they don't find a new master…Kayneth in this instance." Kiritsugu's cold logic was all there was. It couldn't be said he was telling a lie, because he wasn't, just what he said was cruel to most.

"On top of that, Kirei and Tokiomi were rather close before Archer's demise so it is more likely that Archer will seek out a contract with Kirei…We must kill either one before that time."

Kiritsugu frowned. Rider had certainly put them in a hard position to leave.

* * *

It was six AM by the time I awoke the next morning. There was no food in the house and Rider for some reason had noticed and gone and stolen breakfast for me in the form of a bento and bottled water from a corner store. If it weren't for the fact that I had no money and no parents I would have been a little disappointed, only a little. I would have done the same had she not done so already so I couldn't talk really. Instead a quite 'thankyou' followed by a yawn was given and I ate the breakfast given to me.

The rest of the morning until around nine was spent going through the assortment of books left behind by the Edelfelts. Perhaps I would find something useful here.

Basic magic theory, circuits and their compositions, wraiths and other apparitions…Nothing on jewel magic, even though the Edelfelts prized the magic much like the Tohsaka's. It made sense really, wouldn't want one house stealing from another like one of the Edelfelts had had their knowledge integrated into the Tohsaka lineage through a marriage to some Tohsaka fellow in the past. The only reason I could think of that being possible was the Edelfelt family trait Ore scales. It allowed for potentially two heirs as the magic crest could be duplicated once per generation for reasons unknown to me.

Bah, enough about the families. One is in Finland and the other that had a master in the war is dead. Would I tell Rin I did it? No, probably not.

Would Kirei? If he wasn't dead by the end of the war, probably, yes. Just to incite conflict for his own amusement.

No, it did not matter to worry about those, all would be dead except me, hopefully that is, by the end of the sort of War. Really expected more from something called a war.

I was actually looking for something that may have amounted to a diary of sorts of the Edelfelt's exploits in the third Grail conflict. If I could convince perhaps Kiritsugu by blending into the forest when Caster attacked the Einzbern mansion soon for Jean D'arc, probably tomorrow, I may be able to hand it off to say Irisviel. She would hopefully be thankful enough to me and not kill me, even with Maiya by her side, though that would have to happen after Kirei attacked…perhaps it would be easier to kill Caster with Saber's assistance and give her the book? She wouldn't kill a child would she now?

I eventually did find something that documented the events of the Grail conflict. It also amassed battle plans, strategies and identities discovered in the Grail conflict, along with of course the aberrant class Avenger whom they noted to be Angra Mainyu, with a brief explanation afterwards stating that they would never return. I surmised it could have been interpreted as running away, but a quick note afterwards noted that the Grail was corrupt, and that they suspected Avenger to be the cause. There was no reason to return for succeeding wars for a broken cup.

"Hm, I think this sums it up nicely." I said to myself. Of course, I hadn't actually expected them to know the Grail was corrupt, but a sneaking suspicion that it was and never returning for succeeding conflicts? Suspicious.

I snapped the book shut and practiced propelling myself across the room with the bringer light I was growing accustomed to. I have to admit it was mostly trial and error. Most of the attempts this morning had ended up with me faceplanting on the floor as I moved about the mansion. A far cry from my first ever conscious use of the technique, but I digress. It was the weekend, no one was at school, meaning of course I was free to roam the city as I pleased as long as I had a suitable adult figure by my side for the duration.

I glanced at Rider as I entered the sun room on the top floor where Rider had deigned to find herself comfortable in the mean time. She didn't respond, I suspected she was asleep, then again she could probably keep an eye on me from any position in the mansion with her sensory capabilities.

Just as I was thinking that she moved her head to look at me, well, as much as one could look at another through a blind fold. Eh, may as well.

"Hey Rider. Wanna go into town?" I thrust a thumb over my shoulder in the direction of what I assumed to be the city and not the forest.

"If that is what you wish to do master." Rider said as she was about to dematerialise to follow me in her invisible form.

"Wait!" I said in a somewhat urgent voice. "I know I may not act like a six-year-old for the most part, but I am still six for all intents and purposes. So going into town unattended is bound to get someone's attention be it the authorities or someone else. I need you to act like an adult figure who is accompanying me. Pretend you're my big sister or older cousin or something…" This was kind of embarrassing. Me, a man, in a child's body needing an adult to look after me. "So um, do you have casual clothes or anything, or do we need to steal those too?"

That certainly raised an eyebrow and a slight twitch to the face at the mention of 'big sister'. Never the less, Rider complied and she was enveloped by a blue haze as her clothing changed to something more fitting. Blue denim jeans with a black polo neck top, and some casual shoes that matched. Along with that the serpentine tattoo that was on her forehead also disappeared and a pair of glasses manifested themselves on her face…I thought she got those from Aoko? Eh, whatever.

"Is this fitting Kane?" Rider asked turning around to give me a proper view of her attire. I hadn't asked for it, but I wasn't complaining. Despite me being six and children thinking that liking people of the opposite gender was icky, I was pleased, perhaps mildly disturbed, that my libido was still present and I left with a slight squeak in my voice as I said yes.

* * *

**Word count: 8063**

**One review from a guest said that it was good that I hadn't completely fucked over Cannon...Well, I killed Tokiomi early cuz he was undefended and his attention was elsewhere, not to mention so was Kirei's. I always thought it would be relatively easy to kill him in his home with a servant of appropriate magical resistance when Archer was out and about, but then I remembered the Command seals and only did so when I was writing the piece, and so, as a true SI and writers forgetting shit they should remember, I left it in with Rider surviving by the skin of her teeth. Quite literally. We can assume her head was almost taken as stated in the fic.**

**As for your initial complaint about the fainting episode. I am not fond of these either, and I initially imagined falling unconscious due to blood loss. It does happen. I've seen it happen. So I thought that as long as there is a viable real world legit excuse for a character fainting like that it was ok.**

**As for akasuna123: Your first question is answered in the second chapter. It is further addressed in this chapter, though only as a minor consideration. In terms of keeping Rider alive...I have considered it, though I will have to see what course of events are best as I go along. The same general outcome will be achieved either way however.**


	4. CH 4: Conglomeration

**A slightly shorter chapter this time, though that's mainly because the chapter pace is far slower than the others so far. Do not fear however.**

**Also, sorry it wasn't out sooner. It would have been if I didn't almost split my thumb open with an apple corer like a dumb-ass.**

**Chapter 4: Conglomeration**

* * *

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

Kayneth's fingers kept tapping away at the armrest of the chair he was seated in. It was unfathomable really. He, Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi taken out in a single night!?

To say that Kayneth was disappointed was to put it mildly. No, he was absolutely livid right now, and not amount of talking down from his dear wife Sola would solve the problem at hand. His servant had been killed in a single trike from what he could only assume was Archer's Noble Phantasm. Nothing else could have ended Lancer that quickly.

Of course however, there was a slight silver lining to this predicament. Archer's master had also been killed that night he lost his servant. He would have gone to try and forge a contract with said servant if it weren't obvious that the likelihood of controlling such a being was well beyond anyone's capabilities. No, he would have to take another servant form someone who was incompetent.

Or at least that would be the plan if the hotel he had been staying in for his stay in Japan during the War wasn't blown to pieces. Humiliating Emiya Kiritsugu took precedence at this point in time.

The filthy man didn't have a shred of pride in his desolate body to even attempt to get past all of the other traps he'd lain in the hotel, mana furnaces, portals that led to the fourth dimension in space and would invariably tear him to pieces! Wasted!

This unfortunately limited his options quite severely. He would need to invade the Einzbern property on the outskirts of Fuyuki without a servant. There was no telling when the man presiding as master of Saber would realise his folly of not making sure that he had not survived the collapse of the building from the top floor. Granted however, were is anyone else, they would not have in the short time that they would have had to react to a building collapsing on their heads.

The hired mercenary had not been seen in any of the encounters so far, though the Homunculus that walked around with said servant was not the master if the lack of command seals on her hands was any indication at all. It was likely that he was the only one that knew as well due to being the only other master present for the battle on the first night. It also meant that he wouldn't likely encounter them together…

If he had anything to say about it, and he would, he was going to find a way to kill that man tonight. He'd have to take careful note of all of the possible tricks the magus killer could leave up his sleeves in an attem-…no not an attempt, a successful murder would happen, and then he would take his servant Saber for himself. He was no fool, even he could see that since the Einzberns had resorted to hiring such a man they wouldn't leave the handling of their servant to one of their own, no, they would use the prideless man's ways to sway the battle in their favour, in any way he saw fit.

The doll was a cover and likely a powerful adversary that none but perhaps a member of the Hunters guild could hope to eradicate, such was the power of a combat variant Einzbern Homunculus. It pained him to admit that those things that wore human flesh could be stronger than he, and even perhaps Lorelei for the truly exceptional.

To compare a doll to such a being whom was wrath incarnate was to tip the balance so to speak. Fortunately, neither held any real interest in the other so they could be left alone for the time being. The point still stood however, such creatures were normally handed sealing designations and locked away at the 'Bottom of the bridge', such was the range of ability, though they were far too dangerous and numerous to pursue en-masse as they were and as such were left alone.

Regardless, unless he had a way to counter a potential Homunculus he was going to be in a spot of trouble…his Volumen Hydrargyrum could potentially even the playing field if only slightly. He would need something more. His skills included alchemy, summoning, necromancy and spiritual evocation as well as minor healing abilities. Hmm.

He supposed it could work. It would take a fair bit of his prana to do so, though a formal craft circle would invariably cut down the costs significantly…Yes, yes it would do.

* * *

Truly, the world was pitiful. His so called master had been killed while his back was turned. The man had prided himself on his talents far too much and had expected too much from a mere show of force to keep away those desperate to win the Grail War.

Truly, those desperate enough would ignore warnings and charge in blindly despite the consequences. He knew after all, having ruled over peons for many years during his natural life.

At the crux of the issue however, was that woman he had failed to kill…She smelt of snakes. He hated snakes. If he encountered her again in his numbered days remaining on this pathetic excuse of a rock he would kill her immediately. Of course however, he had no interest in the Grail so that was unlikely and he was not one to seek revenge for his master's death. For slighting him perhaps, but he would leave the searching to the fake priest and his servant. That was the task of servants. Had the man, Tokiomi, been more important, perhaps just below that of a friend he would have gone and found the woman himself. Unfortunately for Tokiomi, he did not fit the position and he was in some part glad to be rid of him.

He would much rather pour himself over the few fine wines the fake priest had collected in his life. He almost felt a sense of amusement at that. He so enjoyed his conversations with Kirei. The man did not know joy so he would take it upon himself to teach the poor fool.

He was a twisted soul certainly and he would have no qualms unleashing the havoc that the man would cause just by realising that he enjoyed inflicting misery and pain unto others. Part of the journey was the discovery however and he knew he wanted to savour every moment of it, so he would take his time in tipping the scales in Kirei's mind.

Ah, think thy name and thee shall come.

He could hear the man enter the stairwell that led to this small secluded room. The gentle yet heavy steps echoed through the stone passage way that did not echo like the man's Father's…He did enjoy their little talks.

* * *

_Another day, another prayer. Such was the life of Medusa and her two sisters Euryale and Stheno. Blessed to wander the lands by the yearning hearts of men they Medusa and her sisters received gifts everyday as they were the 'perfect Goddess'' to man._

_Medusa smiled every time a man came to the temple's steps to prayer to them, every time they wept, every time they smiled, for what was better than to be loved by all those who believed in her. She, unlike her sisters was born imperfect, though many of the followers did not see her that way and worshipped her still, much to her confusion. Her sisters still retained their own followers of course, far more than her own as they were beings that did not age and would stay beautiful forever, as adolescent children, though their personalities spoke otherwise when she was alone with her beloved sisters._

_Medusa tread through the temple in which she lived. She loved life as it was in this very moment and wished it to span on forever. Alas it was not meant to be and she was afraid she may be drawing the ire of a God or Goddess as she was sure that Poseidon's weekly visits were not going unnoticed._

* * *

Seeing Rider's past in my sleep wasn't an unexpected event. It didn't serve the purpose it did in the original Fate visual novel where it gave Shirou insight into the inner workings of Saber's mind and past. Rather it painted the bleak picture that was Rider's past and how far she had fallen. Greek tragedy's were typically caused by the Gods in some way or another. In some ways however it only served to benefit the current her however.

I could see Rider out of the corner of my eye taking more belonging's that weren't hers. More specifically, money.

I wasn't exactly sure how Servant's operated under the Grail's influence and knew only that it granted them relevant knowledge of the current era so they wouldn't be looking at everything in wonder when they saw it for the first time. Rider's apparent kleptomania didn't help assuage my fears, rather it told me she knew exactly what money was used for, and if the class allowed for it she could have probably been summoned as Assassin with how well she manoeuvred through the crowd even under the stares she was gathering with her unearthly beauty.

I'm pretty sure I knew better about Rider though, even as I saw her pocket the few thousand yen she had just relieved someone of. She was incredibly protective of Sakura in the original timeline so there was no reason besides myself and Rider being too dissimilar that would prevent her from taking a step forwards to help look after my well being. As long as that line of thought was being taken there was probably little that Rider wouldn't do to guarantee my safety.

I shook my head as we continued forwards. I couldn't really attend any of the local restaurants and cafes that my family frequented in my time here as I would likely be noticed so visiting a new one would have to do even if I did particularly like one or two of them.

We eventually made it to a western style café that looked inviting so I decided to crash there for a bit and get something to eat. Rider would have to get something this time unless she wanted to stand out.

"…-ake your order?" the waiter asked patiently as we were seated.

"In a moment please." I smiled at the waiter and he smiled back before nodding to Rider to acknowledge the request. Operation Big Sis Rider is a go!

"Could you come back in a moment please?" Rider being as polite as ever repeated what I said, though in a slightly more eloquent manner. "We're still deciding."

"Of course." The waiter bowed slightly and left to serve another table.

"See!" I motioned to Rider whom seemed slightly amused with my antics. "Even though I'm the boss, that doesn't matter to people who don't know I'm the one who's in charge." I huffed. Being a child was hard. No one ever listened to you seriously…I mean, I probably wouldn't listen to a child that sounded like they had no idea what they were talking about. That's fair. But I knew what I was saying!

Acknowledge me as your fellow brethren adults!

Rider's face scrunched up however when she read the list of items that could be purchased.

"What is coffee?" Rider looked at me…

Seriously…The Grail gives you knowledge of the modern world and how it works. It even tells you how to use money! But it can't tell you what coffee is?

"It's disgusting, you might like it." I return causing Rider's eyes to widen slightly. Ah, perhaps clarification was in order. "It's a beverage that people consume mostly for the fact that coffee contains a drug called caffeine. This drug boosts awareness and activity somewhat. It's mostly consumed by people lacking in energy or sleep. The flavour is what I would call an acquired taste."

I'd never liked coffee, or tea for that matter. Both tasted equally horrible and I had no idea on why people insisted on drinking the stuff. People say it keeps you awake and I have been told that I'm missing out before but I felt fine so why bother trying to get use to it.

Rider seemed to take the extended version of my explanation in better than my shortened version. She merely nodded once hearing it and it seemed like she'd get some variation of coffee. She asked about a few of the sides from there and I explained what they were, though it didn't seem like she'd be getting any. It seemed more like something of a passing interest really.

I ended up getting just a milkshake and a small snack whereas rider ordered something along the lines of coffee…I'd have to insist she actually got something to eat next time. No matter.

"What do you think we should do now Rider?" I asked her genuinely curious as to how she would approach the fuck up I'd made just by existing. We kept the conversation quite and hopefully the surrounding people producing noise would drown out our conversation for the most part. No eaves droppers on that count.

"…" Rider seemed to stare at me for a moment through her glasses before taking a sip of her coffee and humming in pleasure.

"That depends Kane." Rider sipped on her coffee one more time before putting it down. "What else do you already know of the conflict?"

"Very little." I admitted. As ashamed as I was to admit such a thing I only really remembered some specific key points and dates. The whole thing was over a period of approximately five days and we'd just passed day number one, so that meant that there were at least four more days to the conflict including today. "I only know of one version of this taking place and you and I being here already changes that completely. Some guy called Waver was supposed to summon Alexander the Great as Rider, but instead, I survived almost being murdered by Caster's master and have you." I pointed at Rider for that trying to really cement that fact in. She shouldn't be here and neither should I.

Rider seemed to take a moment to process this all. That was fine. I hadn't finished yet anyway.

"Assuming that certain events are likely to take place anyway just as the first night did we can assume that Caster will provoke Saber and Irisviel von Einzbern tonight at the Einzbern castle on the outskirts of Fuyuki." It went without saying that I wished to kill Caster. That much was obvious. Once that was handled, with no one guiding Uryuu by the hand so he can kill children in peace he would be far easier to track, find and kill.

"However, it also means that since Saber's master attempted to kill Lancer's master to take him out of the running." I saw the hotel this morning on our way into the city. "Kayneth will likely try some form of revenge on Saber's master assuming he knows who they are since Archer's master is dead and he can't do anything on that end. He wouldn't be able to anyway with Archer around him most of the time. Most Magi wouldn't have thought to kill someone else in their home, though Kiritsugu's attempt to kill Kayneth will break that rule and cause Kayneth to give chase." I paused for a moment giving it some thought.

"Here's where things get dicey. Since Kayneth no longer has Lancer it is unlikely that he will approach without some form of backup assuming he hasn't gotten himself killed trying to convince Archer to become his new servant. Saber also has access to her noble phantasm meaning that she could potentially kill Caster by herself, though if children are around she likely won't use it due to collateral…plus there is also the castle I guess." I mumble the last part to myself.

"On the other hand Kirei will be approaching the castle as well, though his sole purpose for doing so is to find out why Kiritsugu does what he does." There finished. "For that simple fact we likely won't have to face Assassin's master."

I took a long sip from my chocolate milkshake and a bite out of the banana bread on my plate. Rider merely seemed to contemplate in silence as she looked away.

* * *

"_What are you doing Kane?"_ _a male voice called from across the street while digging through rubble. "Agh!" He threw away the kitchen sink that was more or less in one piece. Not quite what he was looking for._

"_Eatin'." Was all Kane said in turn placing a strip of stale bread in his mouth once again watching a new star form on the horizon. Pretty in all aspects, though deadly none the less._

_The man just snorted in turn looking at Kane. "Yeah, well, when you're done with that come help me find supplies." He said before shaking his head and pulling a corpse out of the rubble and searching the pockets for any useful tools or parts. "Patrol captain my ass." He mumbled a moment later._

"_Mm." another strip followed by a mouthful of water._

* * *

This changes things slightly. Her master admitted to knowing some version of the timeline in which they currently were meaning he at one point had access to some form of magic that allowed him to see the future? No, unlikely. His inability to use circuits properly said as much. A magic trait though? Again, unlikely. If it were such he'd be able to use it already to tell the future, and no doubt would have been kidnapped at a far younger age by someone more unscrupulous from the Magi community. It was likely a one time deal…

If that were the case, using what he had just said to the best of their abilities was the only reasonable course of action they could take.

The way her master phrased some parts of that conversation however implied that he already had an idea of what he wanted to do though…

Her slight lapse in attention earlier this morning had allowed her to drift off for a mere moment and catch a glimpse of her master's former life and what it did imply was odd to say the least. The boy was six and was clearly not an adult, so did the memories belong to someone else? Was he actually some kind of leader at one point? The only slightly sane conclusion she could come up with was that he was someone's reincarnation from a parallel universe…

Enough of that. Further speculation into the matter could happen later.

Rider took another sip of her coffee. She had to admit it did taste rather nice and now she merely had to think which demon possessed Kane to make him think such a beverage was disgusting. It was certainly better than drinking just wine and water all the time like she had in her life if a little bitter. More diversity to the food was always good. If she somehow managed to make it to the end of the war perhaps there was a way to prolong her existence slightly if only for her to try out some cuisine of the modern era…

Gah! Distracted by coffee.

No, the task at hand was the War.

"I have a feeling that you already have an idea of what you want to do master." She would have preferred he stayed in the mansion they were staying at, though in light of recent news returning there was unlikely, it was probably for the best that they stay on the move for the remainder of the war.

* * *

"_What!?" Kane shouted stunned that the Fuyuki church was so close to the section of Forest where the mansion lay. "B-b-but…ARG!" Kane's hands slapped against his face as he and Rider walked past the church. There was no telling whether or not Assassin's master had seen Rider and whether or not Assassin would be able to recall Rider's features accurately._

_Rider merely looked on with a passive face before grabbing Kane by the hand and leading him off as he was distracted by the fact that they had been living so close to Assassin's residence for so long._

* * *

"Well, yeah…" I trailed off reaching up to rub the back of my head somewhat nervous. "I kinda wanna kill Caster since that'll make it easier to kill his master later. Not to mention it'll probably avoid Caster summoning anything too big."

Wasn't there some sort of truce at this point in the war where everyone is out to kill Caster and his master for an extra command seal…?

Then again I am saying this under the assumption that Saber treats her Noble Phantasm like it's something that can be fired any time. All examples I've seen though point to the exact opposite and she requires at least a few seconds to charge it.

This means that Saber will likely still have the same level of trouble that she did the first time when facing Caster. Due to my child status Kayneth will likely pass me off as a child that was kidnapped by Caster and used as bait. This means that it's unlikely that he will attack me if I were to be present in the forest and he will inevitably be killed by Kiritsugu and his Thompson Contender.

Assuming Saber and her master think that Rider is also there to combat Caster due to him becoming a target we can even the playing field with Rider's natural agility and manoeuvring skill and kill Caster…or we let Caster kill Saber and we find Caster's master in the meantime.

He'd likely be on the Shinto side of the city due to the Storm water Drainage pipes he's suppose to be inhabiting on that particular side of Fuyuki. This already cuts down the amount of time it will take tremendously by not having to resort to scouring both sides of Fuyuki. Not to mention that without a mana source Caster is likely unable to sustain himself for long and Caster will wither away given a day or two…that or sudden shock at the death of his master will give Saber time to kill him…

"No," I decide that we'll go after Caster's master. Less things to go wrong that way. "Let's go find Caster's master tonight." I looked up at Rider from my now empty milkshake.

Rider blinked momentarily. "Very well master."

No hesitation!

"I assumed you have a plan to find this master then?" Rider asks. "I would prefer you stayed close by me for the duration of the night, so no, you cannot go off by yourself."

Aww. Rider's acting like a responsible adult…this is bad.

"Hm." I merely hummed, trying to sound disappointed, though I had to give it to her. I was neither trained to fight people in a six-year-old body nor knowledgeable in magic so it probably was for the best. "Fine. We should probably check out the storm water drain by the Fuyuki bridge later today and see if you can sense anything from inside. If you can, we know for certain that they'll be attacking this side of the city tonight and will likely make it his target for the next few nights."

He'd made Miyama a target for a few days as well, according to the news I'd seen, never straying into Shinto. Caster must have found something to put them there or it was a simple change of heart. Besides, if he is in the storm water drainage system, pulling a group of kids across the bridge in the middle of the night is a bit too obvious.

"…" Rider seemed to consider the situation. It had been too short of a time period between first encountering Caster and looking into his supposed hiding spot so the probability of finding him there in that time period was unlikely. It was far more likely he was there now.

"Let's go." Rider said standing and going to pay for the small meal.

Soon we were out the door and walking through the city towards the bridge. Most of the time was spent in silence, however I did notice a few classmates from school along the way. I did my best to avoid getting their attention. It was probably best that no one I knew saw me at the moment.

The moment we arrived at the bridge Rider noticed something off almost immediately. I imagined it must have been some of the mana residue from Caster in the water or something. We travelled down towards the embankment down below and Rider began walking upstream until we came across a concrete outcropping and saw the large drainage pipe that I was expecting.

"Welp! We found it!" I stated. I was unsure of whether or not we should hang around, though I quickly decided against it. I wasn't too sure about Rider's ability to take care of both Caster, his master and myself all at the same time.

"Yes," Rider agreed, hands twitching slightly at her sides as her nose crinkled slightly because of what I could only assume to be the scent of blood. "We should leave."

I had no argument with that. The main objective was to confirm that Caster was indeed where I thought he was. Since that was confirmed and it was only around eleven in the day we had plenty of time to burn until nightfall.

"Let's go back under the bridge for now." I said starting back down stream. As long as Rider was nearby nothing too bad should happen, especially since the drainage pipe was at least one and a half kilometres from the bridge. Caster hopefully wouldn't notice us. "Let's camp out under the bridge for a bit and I'll practice using my abilities for now."

A frown graced Riders features momentarily. "We shouldn't stay too long Kane."

"I know," I agreed. I didn't want to stay too close to Caster either but I needed some secluded place where I could practice my abilities out in the open and the underside of the bridge was mostly out of site, that and I couldn't think of any other place at the moment. "We'll only stick around for a few hours and then leave at around two to get something to eat."

Once we reached the bridge underside, I instantly began hopping around using Bringer Light, trying to improve my competence with the ability. It didn't take long to get some measure of stability and I stopped falling over so much. Once I had the improvements started increasing by leaps and bounds. I imagined the initial issue was a balancing problem. The ground did seem to be unusually slippery sometimes when I used the ability, so once my stability had increased I could begin altering the properties that Bringer Light lent toward my interaction with the ground through my feet.

Not long after I began experimenting I managed to achieve a jump that managed to propel me seven meters forwards. I don't know about any other six-year-olds out there but I was pretty sure that they couldn't do that. Of course this lead to me being slightly greedy and I haphazardly tried to stabilise water under my feet and increase the surface tension to a level at which it could support me.

It failed miserably.

I quickly went plunging into the river and came up freezing cold with Rider stepping forwards slightly when she had seen me gone under only for an amused smirk to grace her face a moment later. I of course tried to get her wet in turn by mustering up what little control I had and throw a literal wave of water at Rider. I only succeeded in propelling a few litres worth up onto the grass, slightly wetting Rider's feet but I thought it was a job well done.

This continued for an hour before I finally managed to stand on the water without falling in. I called it quits with the water sports at that point and delegated the remaining hour of allotted time to practicing on land so that my clothes would hopefully dry out before it was time for us to leave.

The more I practiced the warmer my body felt and the harder I could feel the blood pumping through my arteries and veins. It wasn't an uncomfortable warmth, the one that you get form exercising a lot and requiring you to stop, but one that made me feel that my body was at the right temperature for optimal performance.

At some point in the remaining thirty or so odd minutes I focused my attention inwards on my blood. There was a lot of things I could imagine doing with the stuff, though I couldn't exactly imagine a transformation it would undertake, then again, of all of the examples given in Bleach there was one that didn't actually transform at all. It was that guy with the mohawk?...I wasn't exactly sure of his hairstyle but his Fullbring 'Jackpot' was just a triple seven knuckle buster that increased his luck to obscene levels. I mean, who can punch a perfectly good lamppost and just happen to strike it in the right spot every time so that 'accumulated rust' makes the bolts snap, have it give way and fall over? He wasn't even that strong!

Regardless, the point was that even if a transformation of some kind didn't happen, it didn't mean it didn't work. Case and point, my skin was turning red…Please tell me I haven't just burst an artery.

The red hue vanished as soon as I released my metaphysical hold on my body.

Well, a good a sign as any. Though that was probably as far as I was going to get today. Something felt like it was beginning to burn in my chest and I didn't want to find out if it was my heart giving way or my soul gradually falling apart from overuse of my powers.

It was good timing too as my clothes were mostly dry now so I likely wouldn't be noticed for having slightly damp clothes. They'd only dry out faster under sunlight too!

* * *

Irisviel had gone to the beach once more and Saber had decided to join her, finding that the company of Irisviel was much preferred to that of Kiritsugu as the man refused to talk to her at all. She didn't understand why. She had been told why, but she wasn't about to listen to someone who'd spit on her wish so readily, especially a disgraceful master such as he who kills Magi that have been eliminated from the competition.

Irisviel hummed happily as she hopped behind the wheel of the car she was driving and only waited a moment later for Saber to hop in the passenger seat before taking off to head into the shopping stores she had spied earlier on the way through Miyama.

Thankfully none of the Einzbern Homunculus maids were with them to draw a crowd like they had at the airport. It would have been rather strange otherwise, though Irisviel was not permitted to go to many places without them and had only managed to sneak into town without them. Saber of course adopted the persona of her personal escort again though in less formal attire, instead donning a white blouse and simple blue dress. It gave the air of Saber being an adventurous foreign lady having fun out with her friend.

Saber also secretly hoped that the change in attire would help deter other servants and masters from figuring out who she was at this very moment lest a more unstable character like Caster and his Master had been described as.

It didn't take long to reach the shops where Irisviel wanted to visit, and she thankfully drove at a much safer pace than when she had on the highway the night before.

Both disembarked the car and began walking through the streets to locate a suitable place to have some tea and perhaps lunch, though Saber insisted that she didn't need to eat anything. Despite this Irisviel had insisted and Saber bent under the pressure, acquiescing to Irisviel's request.

"Saber," Irisviel began as she looked over a flower shop they were passing. "How do you feel about the conflict so far?"

Saber paused for a moment before formulating a reply. She hadn't expected a question such as this on an outing like this. "So far?" Saber paused once again having said the question to herself while looking away in thought. "Truly, it is unexpected, and I wish I could have beaten Lancer fairly. Though his subsequent death and the reveal of Archer as well as two more deaths happening in the same night…it all feels rather fast paced. I would prefer we did not kill the other Masters and left it to the Servants to finish the battle, though it would appear that that won't be happening." Her distaste for Kiritsugu's style had reached a new level with the use of such barbaric weapons. He had no pride, not facing his opponents head on.

"Oh well that's good because I think I see Rider." Irisviel hummed, trying not to look as nearly as shocked as she felt.

"Where!?" Saber suddenly replied only following Irisviel's line of sight and found Rider seated on the inside of a café with her back to the window while dressed in casual clothing. Could Rider not turn into a spiritualised form like herself or was there something else at play here?

"!" What caught her attention next was the child sitting on the other side of the table clearly conversing with Rider. "A child?"

"Eh?" Irisviel blinked before noticing the blonde-haired child at the table with Rider. She could only gasp at the misfortune that the child had been given. "He looks about the same age as Ilyasviel." Irisviel stepped forwards, hand rising, before she caught herself and turned to Saber. "We have to keep him safe Saber."

Saber could only agree. No matter how she looked at the situation. She couldn't believe that a small child like that boy would be capable of giving the order for his servant to kill a Master. He was likely completely unaware of his current situation. Rider must have been acting under her own decisions. "I agree Irisviel, however, what do we do about Kiritsugu?"

"…" Irisviel paused. It was certainly a good question. They would have to get the child to command Rider to kill herself at the very least if they wanted to avoid Kiritsugu killing the child, though the chance was low with how he had Ilyasviel now. "I'll handle that. We just need to go talk to them before they notice us."

* * *

"Uhh…Rider?" I questioned her as she froze in her seat.

"There is another Servant outside Kane." Rider admitted and I could feel a tad bit of fear well up in my chest. Depending on who it was it could mean the end of me.

I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw them. Irisviel and Saber…They'd clearly noticed us as I could see Irisviel looking at Riders back through a group of flowers she was pretending to look at. We would probably be ok, but I'd rather not risk it. I could leave the diary here as they came to approach but that left the important question of how I was going to leave the store with Rider without being caught by those two.

"Do you know anyway we could get out Rider?" I asked even as I thought about just dashing for the backdoor…probably the best choice all things considered. Apparently Rider agreed.

"We should approach the back door when they aren't looking Kane and move as quickly as possible without revealing our location which means that I can't use any mana to help us escape." Rider confirmed that my initial thought was probably the best one. Though it did leave the unfortunate case of Rider not being able to enhance herself with her mana to move faster. With her current stats, Saber would likely catch us.

"Psst!" a tapping could be felt on my shoulder as a decidedly childlike voice talked to me. The only reaction I could gauge from this action at the moment was Rider's who looked like she was going to be slack jawed any moment with whoever it must be behind me.

I turned and was equally shocked. No, no, na uh. Me being here can't have possibly changed the timeline this much.

A child like Artoria Pendragon stood behind me with an insatiable grin on her face as though this were all a game to her. It probably was. She was a child after all, and well, I could only treat her as someone who was a child until I confirmed who I thought she was.

Toy Katana strapped to her back, at least I hoped it was a toy, and in a simple blue dress with an equally blue bow in her hair to tie back her golden locks, the only thing that told me that the Artoria out there and the one in here weren't the same was the inherent difference in size and the apparent difference in personalities. Zero Saber and even Shirou's Saber were supposed to be more formal than this and did not look nearly as happy.

"Leave that here." 'Not Saber' pulled the book I held out of my hands and placed it on the table between us before grabbing my hand and pulling me out of my chair even as I glanced back out the window and saw a group of young boys distracting Saber and Irisviel for a split moment as they kicked their soccer ball 'accidentally' in their direction and caused them to lose focus so as to avoid the sudden projectile that was the soccer ball.

'Not Saber' pulled me along even as I made to protest before I realised that it was probably for the best and I would have to go along with the flow for now. "This way." Saber pulled me through the back door of the café waving to the chef in the kitchen as we passed, receiving a warm smile in return. Apparently 'Not Saber' had indentured herself to the local populace and was able to go pretty much wherever she wanted as long as she didn't do anything stupid.

"Kane!" Rider hissed out even as I was letting myself get dragged by the other girl. "Where are we going?"

Good question. Where are we going? I only shrugged in return. I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth when it was given.

Still, however, "Where are we going?" I emphasized the 'are' to try and get a response out of the vibrant young girl as we rounded a corner and entered another back door to someone's property and quickly entered the two-story apartment complex that was there.

"To your new secret hide out!" 'Not Saber' declared as we exited the front of the building.

I looked to the left where Saber and Irisviel should be only to see that they were going into the café to inspect the book that was left behind even as the blonde pulling my arm used a passing crowd to mask our movement and cross to the other side of the street before breaking into a dead sprint. It was then the girl let go of my hand expecting me to follow her and I did, if only to sate my curiosity as to why she was doing this for me.

* * *

"No." Saber refused to believe the words written in the book. "That's impossible." She dropped it as Irisviel reached forwards to take it back and read through the contents of the diary.

She stumbled forwards slightly, using the chair by the table to bear her weight before she slumped into it. Irisviel took her own place on the other side of the table.

The child wrote it! He must have! Or Rider!

…But that left the holes that they would have had to know with extreme detail the identities of the servants in the last war, the master's and their abilities. Rider wasn't capable of this for the simple reason that even if she were summoned in the previous war, which she wasn't, she wouldn't retain her memories for the simple fact that the existence that everyone perceives in the Grail War is just a conglomeration of memories given form of the chosen existence in their prime state for the class in which they will be operating in.

Saber knew Rider wasn't in the last War for the simple fact that _she _had participated in the last war under the very master that had written the diary in the first place. Saber was an abnormality in the fact that she was still alive and so retained her memories of the past two Wars. She had been the one to slay the weakest Servant! It was so easy…Too easy!

It couldn't be the child either, Irisviel had commented that his prana was leaking out as though he had just learnt how to use mana for the first time. He was new to this world and combined with the fact that he looked to be incredibly young he likely didn't have the skill to write something so convincing.

She hadn't thought much of it at the time, thought the more she read her former Master's notes the more it made sense. She only needed Irisviel to confirm the words in the book, for her own sake.

Irisviel looked into Saber's eyes after having read the words in the last few pages and nodded in a resigned fashion before gripping the book tightly at her side. She would show Kiritsugu of course.

"All that work, effort, for nothing…"

* * *

**Word count: 7029**

* * *

**Servant stats: Updated!**

**Class: ****Rider**

**Name: Medusa**

**Status: Alive**

**Master: Kane ()**

**Status: Alive**

**Strength: ****C **

**Endurance: D**

**Agility: A (Previously: B)**

**Mana: B **

**Luck: E**

* * *

**To be honest, I'm not entirely happy with this chapter so it may be subject to slight changes (not definite, could get lazy and not do it) in the future in terms of written form, the same basic premise would remain however. Conversations about how to go about the next part of the Grail War and some Fullbring practice as well as the almost meeting with Saber and Irisviel. Initially I had planned for the SI to meet them directly but I thought it was better not to. Saber would ultimately kill Rider in that scenario and I plan to have Rider stick around for a bit so yeah.**

**SI has become more of an SI/OC as i'm making up backstory so yeah. Mostly still SI though.**

**As for 'Not Saber', well, that's a sort of gonna have to wait to find out kind of thing. **

**Also, the next chapter may not come out for a bit as real life has caught up and I need to take care of my uni degree first.**

**Ruberforumfree : They are not QUINCY powers. A Fullbring is Hollow based. Basically poison to Quincy's. So no, the SI is not in danger of having his soul sucked out of him by an overpowered God/Demi-God.**


	5. CH 5: Perseverance

**Chapter 5: Perseverance**

* * *

The blonde bundle of energy sat opposite me in the house I had found myself in on a comfortable looking black leather lounge. Her bright smile hadn't faded yet as she looked upon me with a hint of curiosity in her eye. It would appear that she was waiting for me to begin the conversation.

"Sooo," I drew the word out not quite sure what I should be expecting. "Who are you exactly?" I asked as I finally sat down on the smaller lounge opposite 'Not Saber'.

Meanwhile Rider looked like she was ready to pounce on the poor child and rip her head off if something went wrong. Perhaps she could tell something that I was missing.

"Oh, silly Kane." The girl waved me down while turning her head to the side to hide the growing smile on her face, further surprising me with her knowledge of myself. "It's me, Saber!...Though I suppose you should call me by my new name, Lily."

"…" Wat?

I could see Rider twitch out of the corner of my eye as well.

"You see, once I'd gotten over my break down about the Grail not being reachable, I came to the conclusion that sometimes you just have to let things go." Lily began explaining something impossible, or rather not so impossible as I had come from another reality had I not? It wasn't too farfetched to believe right?

"Irisviel was really helpful with that part." Lily hummed wistfully. "That's besides the point however. You're not supposed to meet other me until later when Rider won't instantly be killed. So I had to jump in and save your sorry ass."

"…Aren't you suppose to, I dunno," I paused for a moment to think of how I should word this. She spoke differently? Acted differently? Her whole demeanour had changed from Saber to this, whatever it was. "Be different?" I had to sound that out to make sure it made sense to myself as I said it. I still wasn't entirely sure this was Saber…Lily, whomever she claimed to be.

Lily's face grew a slightly contented smile at that. "I understand." She paused for a moment to gather her thoughts.

* * *

Kiritsugu looked harder and harder at the paper that was presented to him by Irisviel. Supposedly the diary she had obtained had been in the possession of the Master of Rider and normally that would have been solid grounds to trust anything that was handed to them with a grain of salt. The troubling matter was however was the fact that said Master in question happened to be a child, younger than Illya Irisviel claimed.

Now he knew that by most standards that he had faced that Illya was rather innocent compared to the rest of the children on the planet, though it wouldn't be far fetched to say that she and this child had roughly the same current mental capacity and didn't hold nearly enough knowledge to write such a detailed fiction of the Moonlit world, much less the third Grail War. More disturbing still was that Irisviel had confirmed that the identity of the servant of the Einzbern's during said War was in fact Angra Mainyu and he had died rather early.

He could understand just by reading this what it meant. There would be no wish to be granted, no saving the world, only more conflict. The first and foremost one was the current War however.

…He wanted to so badly just sit down and close his eyes for a split moment. But he knew if he did so the chance of him getting back up and finishing the War was slim at best. There was no point in continuing as it were. The main problem would be trying to convince the other Magi that there was no point in winning the Grail…as well as some servants.

He looked over to Saber as she stood next to Irisviel with a hollow look in her eyes. He had detested her wish the whole time she had been here. Why would you want to change something that has happened, especially when that something didn't mean the downfall of your kingdom, but rather you thought someone else could do it better? Kiritsugu wondered that all the time, if there was someone else better suited to the task. He came to the conclusion that there wasn't however as no one ever stepped up to the tasks that he performed and did what needed to be done.

The same could be said for Saber. No one else had been able to step up to the task and take Caliburn from the stone in the earth, at least no presently while her father sat on the throne, and while the throne would have been passed to either of her brothers, should someone draw the sword from the stone, they would become the next ruler of the Kingdom. This of course begged the question as why Saber had to pass herself off as a man despite the fact that she had drawn the sword and fulfilled the requirements. He honestly didn't care about that though.

"Saber," Irisviel began. "Sometimes there are things in life you just have to let go of no matter how much you want it to happen." She moved to the servants side and looked pleadingly into her eyes. "I wanted to go home to Illya, wanted there to be another Homunculus to take my place, but I had a duty to fulfil, a role that could not be replaced immediately. The same can be said for you. You had a duty to fulfil and pick up that sword, there was likely no one better despite how much you wish there was."

Kiritsugu could see where this was going. "Life is filled with disappointment." He added in, though flinching slightly when Irisviel turned to sharply look at him.

"Unfortunately, it's exactly as Kiritsugu says." Irisviel turned back to Saber clasping one of her hands in her own. "I cannot go back home now that the ritual has started and a servant has already died just like you cannot go back and change anything. The mana has already been accumulating in the core placed within my heart."

Saber looked at Irisviel, unsure of herself. It was true. Nothing could be done now, and her contract with the world was void because of it. At the end of the war she could go back to Cammlan and die there on the battlefield with Mordred's sword in her side. She wouldn't go on to serve the world as a Counter Guardian like agreed upon. Rather, the point at which the Grail had been contaminated was the point at which the contract had been voided. Why she was still summoned despite that was a mystery to her…was she already acting out the worlds wishes? Tricked into serving despite there being no prize? Did Avalon even exist?

"I need to think about this for a moment Irisviel." Saber said as she pulled away and moved towards the window looking outside. "…England still survives to this day?"

Irisviel's eyebrows rose a little as she looked to Kiritsugu who was engrossed in the map he was pouring himself over and writing notes down onto the paper beside himself…Irisviel merely huffed in annoyance. Truly, Kiritsugu's callous attitude was making her form an attitude of her own.

"Yes Saber." Irisviel responded a moment later. "Perhaps if you survive the War you can go visit." Irisviel said hopefully. It was a stretch to be sure. The requirements to support a servant single handedly was well above the capabilities of most Magi but even so, it could be possible for Kiritsugu to support her for a day or two afterwards at least. Any more than that was unlikely.

Saber could only sigh in turn, her shoulders slumping as though a great weight had suddenly been taken off of her shoulders. While there were many things she wished could be undone, obviously it was not meant to be. It would have to do for now. While she could not promise that she would be able to do her best for the rest of the war because of her emotional state, she had now qualms about taking some of the current worlds atrocities with her. Caster would be first given the truce that had been called earlier that day to hunt down the mad servant.

Saber nodded. "Ok, let's finish the War." She didn't turn back to face the others though. She could only imagine the disappointment her face showed at the moment.

* * *

"And after dying in Cammlan I ended up in some place called the Soul Society, English district." Lily said waving her hands in the air to something that I could only assume was the Soul Society she spoke of. "No Avalon, but somewhat peaceful. Unfortunately, you can die there too apparently and I died to a knife in the back before reincarnating into this new family." The way she said the word family implied that she absolutely adored them. "My new parents are far kinder than my old father Uther and I guess my personality changed over the years with it. That and most of my memories are gone."

"Huh," I hummed to myself, "neat." I wasn't entirely sure of how to react to that. "And those kids earlier?" That was either a coincidence, which was unlikely, or Lily's doing.

Lily perked up for a moment. "Oh, they're my minions." It was slightly disturbing hearing that coming from a girl that was once supposed to be Saber. "I asked them to distract Irisviel and Saber for a moment so we could escape."

"…When are we supposed to meet exactly?" I asked only to get a look that said 'we already have' in return. "I mean, other you. The Saber version of you."

Lily breathed in to reply holding a hand up, "IIII can't tell you that. What if you don't end up doing the things you were supposed to the first time around?" Lily paused for a moment. "Also, I've always wondered, why do you sound so smart? Youuuur six?"

Denied! "Can't tell you that either." I responded meeting Lily's pout. "Anyhow," why was I in this building again? A hideout? "What is this hideout you talked about earlier? You said we were going there but we ended up here."

Lily perked up at that springing from her seat. "This!" Lily spread her arms out gesturing to the house in which we were currently in. "Is your new hideout!...Kind of." A positively predatory grin lit up on her face a moment later, though what she said didn't explain why and I was slightly afraid. "Mum and Dad are cool with it." She waved it off. "They're out at the moment with my little brother Angus."

Like saying that made anything better. How old was she? Seven?

"Mum's a second generation Magus and Dad's got high circuit counts for someone who was born into a family that didn't know about them."

"Wouldn't that make things worse?" I had to ask. If her mother knew about the Grail War wouldn't she want it for herself?

Lily rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Uhh, about that."

Wonderful. She wants the Grail.

"My Mum kinda hasn't told the second owner that we're living here so if she did compete that would mean telling them we've been here for the past three years without their knowledge." She chuckled slightly after saying that. "So when I said I know a kid at school who needs a place to stay because his family…passed away because of the murderssss…are you ok?" Lily paused looking genuinely concerned.

I noticed it to. My face had become blank, I clenched my hands together and all I could think about was killing Uryuu. It had been getting worse. I suppose the fact that my family was dead was actually still sinking in for the most part. I'm not entirely sure I'd be able to handle facing Uryuu again. "I'm fine." I said, hoping to leave it at that.

"Ooook…" Lily paused once more. "Well, once I told her that the boy was also participating in the war and asked if you could stay here during the day to get food and other things she said it was ok as long as you left during the middle of the night. I couldn't get her to let you sleep here, sorry." Lily said rubbing the back of her head once more. "Buuuut, if you live, she said she'd adopt you."

…Oh…Oooooh. That was good. I was assuming I'd get adopted by Mr 'I can't cook' Emiya and have to lear- relearn how to cook by the time I was seven lest I die via charcoal ingestion. I also wondered how I hadn't noticed quite possibly the only other blonde at school. If I understood what she was implying correctly, she basically said we've been going to the same school for about half a year and haven't met once. How does that happen?!

"That sounds pretty good." I hummed while taking a look around the room I was in. TV on the wall on the far side, timber floor with an odd unmatching blue rug on the floor. The walls themselves were painted a creamy whit-Lily's hands were in my face.

"What?" I said pushing her hands away.

Lily only smiled in turn. "From what little I do remember of the Grail War, you can use magic right?" Lily asked receiving a nod in return.

"Well, sort of." I admitted that my magic wasn't too good at the moment and Rider looked slightly disappointed at my response. Probably didn't want me to tell a potential enemy I was so weak. Not like it made a difference though. If I had no powers I'd still be helpless, just more so than now.

"Were your parents Magi?" She asked again if I had any actual formal training. Another no.

"Am I to assume you still have a dragon core?" I was genuinely interested, though the revelation clearly surprised Lily whom hadn't expected me to know her true identity.

"Yeaaaah?" she was unsure of what I meant or how I knew that to some extent, "But that isn't what I want to ask you about." Lily stated pulling me away from the lounge and out the back door into the admittedly rather large back yard. "As a child participating in the war, other me, Saber," Lily clarified, "won't kill you because killing children is against her personal beliefs. It can't be guaranteed however that other Magi won't take advantage of your undefended self like Rider did to the Tohsaka's." Lily nodded to Rider as she followed us out the back door.

"As such." She grabbed a wooden shinai and threw it at me and I attempted to catch it rather poorly in my grubby six year old hands. "I feel it best to train you for you to have a better chance to survive…" Lily looked to the side blushing for a moment as a slight grin tugged at her lips.

Wait! I saw that! She was going to enjoy beating this for the sheer fact that I would likely be stronger than any of the other children she had faced so far. Lacking in skill certainly as I had never wielded a sword in my life before, toy lightsabres certainly back when I was a kid in my previous life, but nothing like this. Though my other facets such as speed and strength were increasing by the day at the moment with how effectively my Fullbring was growing. I'd probably give her a better run for her money better than most, but I would undoubtedly lose in my current state.

"You're going to enjoy this aren't you?" I said accusingly, gripping the sword I held in both hands even as Rider finally began relaxing in the background, settling on an unused chair nearby and allowing a slight tug at the edge of her lips to be made present before it just as quickly disappeared.

Apparently Lily couldn't rid herself of the smile quickly enough as she snapped her head back to me when I said what I had as I saw the smile struggle on her face. It was like she was really trying not to show how much she was going to enjoy this moment, yet at the same time she couldn't help but feel joy for the ability to have some competition.

"Possibly." Lily admitted as much before straightening herself out and breathing in deeply once before letting it all out, the smile having disappeared from her face but a twinkle was still clearly present in her eyes. "Prepare yourself!" Lily called out as she lunged forwards.

I barely managed to block the strike with a twist of the blade even as I told her 'wait!'. She wouldn't stop however and just kept on attacking, only ever leaving just enough room for me to defend. It was training, or at least as much as one could learn from someone trying to beat the crap out of them. I'd personally never understood the approach, though I certainly understood that experience was paramount to the application of skills learnt. And so without a way out I played along as much as I could, trying not to over exert myself and make the heat in my chest flare up too greatly. Only the simplest of uses would be ok until later.

I kicked back on the ground propelling myself backwards in a burst of acceleration before swinging the shinai as much as I could with my small arms being bolstered by green flickering lights.

The strike hit back at Lily as she defended herself against me, a smirk gracing her lips…

It went on like this for a while. Lily using her superior combat skills to beat combat experience into me like she should have done to Shirou, though I suppose that wasn't going to happen anymore considering that her contract with the world is now void.

I undoubtedly increased slightly in terms of ability to wield a sword, and it had always been a secret desire of mine to learn how to use one, though in the advent of projectile weaponry, one required either gaining the upper hand through a surprise attack or superhuman ability. As neither were really viable options back in my original world I left it at that. Now though, well, learning how to use a sword couldn't be too bad now could it?

* * *

Lily had kicked both myself and Rider back out onto the street by the time the sun had started to set. By then Lily's parents, Sarah and Benjamin Parker had arrived with their son and gotten a good look at both myself and my servant, though few words were said besides hello and goodbye as the chances of us meeting again were relatively slim as it was considering the you know, city wide death battle.

I still felt a little odd under the gaze of Mrs Parker simply because her eyes lingered a little longer than they really should have. She looked more surprised with my appearance than anything else however and I left it at that. No need to worry over something so small.

Since then, Rider and I had made our way back across the bridge that connected the two halves of Fuyuki. The sun had set some time after we made our way back across and both Rider and myself made our way onto one of the high rise buildings nearby that would have a nearly unobstructed view of where Uryuu was supposed come out from along the embankment.

I have to admit though, I'd never been good with heights, especially that one time I went sky diving back in my previous life. The photos weren't pretty and were me pretty much freaking out the whole way down. People were not meant to jump out of planes. I repeat. Heights are bad for people…Then again Rider did plan to jump off of this building while holding onto me when we left. I simply wouldn't be capable of keeping up otherwise especially since I can't actually fly yet…I'm pretty much screwed.

Instead of pondering my possible death by going splat on the sidewalk, I pulled out a water bottle that Lily had so kindly given to me, filled to the top with water and began to play with it with my bringer light, trying to levitate the stuff in front of myself…I wonder if I could pull the stuff off the ground if I dropped the water?

Rider merely stood stock still, watching over the edge of the building while keeping her prana output to the absolute minimum while I stupidly spilt nearly half the bottles contents on the roof top…oops.

Anyway, the idea was to 'pull' the water off of the ground and into the air. I'd be a freakin' water bender! Though, since the water touched the rooftop and despite the Japanese and their propensity to make everything clean I probably shouldn't drink the stuff I did manage to lift since I didn't know how, nor was I skilled enough to purify water by removing the impurities contracted.

The overall practice yielded some results as a few ripples were made in the water as I heldmy hand over it. Success was guaranteed as soon as I touched the fluid as the same skill from standing on water came in handy and it all stuck to my hand, though that wasn't the goal. Unfortunately, I had to leave it there. As much as I would have loved to continue and bend the universe to my will I would still need some level of energy and coordination in an emergency that required me running away as fast as humanly possible.

I joined Rider next to the rooftop edge thereafter, staying a healthy distance from said edge and watched over the embankment for any human shaped dots to make themselves present.

Soon enough, seconds turned into minutes and minutes to hours. My eyes felt incredibly heavy as I held back a yawn and Rider stood as still as she had before watching out over the city much like one would expect a servant of the Archer class to do. The only thing that allowed her to do so was her enhanced senses I suspect. Eh, I yawned once more, rubbing my eyes before I caught something in the corner of my eye.

"Hmm?" I mumbled to myself, immediately catching Riders attention.

"What is it Kane?" Rider asked taking not of the small mana signature down below. A child at best.

"We should have seen Caster's Master by now and he…is," another yawn, "isn't anywhere. Maybe he's somewhere else?"

"…" Rider paused for a moment. It was indeed possible that Caster's Master had arisen from another service tunnel and wasn't using the embankment as the main entrance as they had first assumed. "And what does this have to do with the little girl down there Master?" Rider asked hoping to probe her Master's mind for some potential otherworldly information that he may still have in his possession.

"?" I paused momentarily, my mind clearing rapidly in realisation. Could it really be her?

"Rider. Take us closer but stay out of sight." I said taking careful note to not curse as soon as Rider lifted me bridal style and hopped off of the edge of the building.

* * *

"Overall, there are four possible places for the convergence of the grail." Kiritsugu began pointing to one of the locations on the map before him. "Downtown Shinto, the Tohsaka residence, Miyama temple and the Matou residence."

"All four of these places have the spiritual characteristics to manifest the grail when the war is over. Of course however, as a general rule, both the Tohsaka residence and Matou residence don't count since that would be in violation of the rules set up." Kiritsugu pointed to the two family homes and crossed them off of the map. "That leaves the temple and downtown Shinto. The temple, while possessing the greatest spiritual characteristics overall leaves itself open to a frontal attack with little room for easily accessible vantage points in the end stages of the war, and since we have Iri…" Kiritsugu looked over to Irisviel for a moment with a somber look on his face only to receive a caring smile in return.

"Since we have Iri, we can determine where the Grail will be manifested. Downtown Shinto has the most advantageous positions for our combined fighting styles." Saber, Maiya and himself of course. "Any objections?" Kiritsugu looked to the three women present.

"Just one." Saber spoke up. "What of the civilian population?"

Of course. Saber and her chivalry.

"I am well aware that both locations will have civilians regardless of circumstances, however, wouldn't it be more prudent to choose the location with a lower population in order to minimise casualties?"

Hm, not quite what he had expected, but he could work with that. "Believe it or not, Downtown Shinto's overnight population drops to the lowest population density overnight due to the abundance of firms in the area. Most close by ten PM at the latest and those that area always open tend to have a skeleton crew at night." Kiritsugu tried appealing to Saber's sense of protecting the innocent. "Besides, are you going to try and actually destroy Fuyuki?"

"…No." Saber admitted.

"So we are in agreement then?" Emiya Kiritsugu asked as he finished loading his calico and Thompson Contender before checking his belt for the spare magazine and extra Contender rounds. "We're going to destroy the grail and the grail system after the war has ended?"

Saber didn't need to ponder any further. She had had several hours to come to terms with the fact that the Grail was contaminated and that she would likely never receive her ultimate wish. As regretful as it was, she had let go and decided to help prevent another calamity befalling the earth at the hands of greedy Magi.

"Yes…Master…" It still didn't feel right to say those words, "Kiritsugu." She corrected herself. Ah, much better.

"Good." Was all that had managed to leave the spellcaster's mouth before Irisviel twitched slightly and went over to the crystal ball that lay on the far end of the dining hall and used a clairvoyance spell to try and get a better reading on the disturbance in the bounded field that she had just detected.

It took a moment but when Irisviel saw whom was on the other end she instantly grew worried. "It's Caster!"

Saber was by Irisviel's side a moment later looking into the ball just as Caster's face turned to seemingly look at the both of them through the spell even though it shouldn't have been possible.

"He knows we're watching." Irisviel stated just as the bug-eyed man smiled gently and waved to the both of them. It was incredibly disturbing as it was to see him in person just the other night, even more so now where he seemed at least mildly amiable…were those children?

…Two, three, four…eleven children?

It took a moment to register, but all of the pieces came together pretty quickly. The recent deaths and disappearances in the city were likely because of Caster and his master. It was almost a shame really that the reason they had a target painted on their heads was because they were dangerously close to revealing the moonlit world to man and not because they were kidnapping children from families.

Saber's hands balled themselves into fists momentarily before relaxing.

"Kiritsugu…" The question was left unsaid as Saber turned to face the man in charge.

"They're already dead." Kiritsugu said checking the connections to the camera feeds throughout the mansion. "Though you're free to try however." It wasn't like they were expecting any other guests tonight after all. Lancer and his Master are both dead. Archer had no reason to approach other than trying to court Saber again, Rider, again, had no reason to approach and probably wouldn't with a child for a master. Leaving Berserker and Kirei as wild cards. As it was however it was unlikely there would be a repeat performance of the first night where almost all of the servants were present at the docks.

Before he could even talk to Saber again she was already out the door.

"Maiya," It couln't hurt to be cautious however and keep the Grail out of enemy hands. "Take Iri and head into the city. Go around Caster while Saber provides a distraction." He'd stay here for the time being to see if anything needed to be tended to while he could still keep an eye on Saber.

"Alright." Irisviel nodded even as Maiya took her by the sleeve and led her out into the hallway to one of the other exits besides the main entrance. It wouldn't do to walk into your own traps after all.

* * *

Gilles De Rais waited for this auspicious day. The day where his holy Virgin Jeanne would come back to him. Ah, he could only hope that she would be proud of him for being her devout follower even in her death.

"Come Jeanne!" Gilles called out into the forest as he waited for her approach with the many brainwashed children surrounding him. Of course, none of them were actually conscious at the moment…Perhaps it would be more fun otherwise. With a wave of his hand the children before him moved as if they were all startled. "Jeanne! I will release the children if you get to me in time. I'll let them run a little too. Otherwise, if you take too long they'll all die."

Just to prove his point Gilles grasped the head of the closest child and squeezed. It only took a second before the head in his hand burst like a melon and pink grey matter and viscera fell to the ground. Truly, even at rank E the strength of a Caster class servant like himself was far beyond what any mortal man had the right to bear.

All the remaining children promptly screamed and began running as fast as their small legs could carry them.

Gilles could already feel the warmth erupting from his heart. It would appear he had made the right choice after all. God must be praising him for granting mercy upon these innocent children and allowing them a chance to live. He must! There could be no other reason.

"…Oh." It appeared one of the children nearby had already tripped and fallen over and was near exhaustion with the hysterical crying and running that they were doing. That simply wouldn't do. He'd have to give them some motivation and go after them first. If they didn't start again by the time he saw them he'd know Gods mercy no longer graced the child and he had been commanded to kill them by his true lord and saviour.

Even as Gilles started walking at a casual pace towards the child he could sense the other children slow down as doubt and confusion clouded their minds in this dark forest, clearly afraid that he would jump out at any moment to finish them off. He would of course. Jeanne would have to see what her death did to him and beg her for forgiveness.

"Ahhhahahhhhhh!" The girl screamed as he approached, having caught sight of his violet robes. "Stay away!" The girl scrambled to her feet once more trying to start running again only to fall back to the ground and get dragged back up into the air by her legs before Gilles grasped her head and pulled her in half with a sickening tear.

That was…quick. Too quick! The warmth in his heart was fading. God was displeased with his speed in killing the child. He would try to give them a slow merciful death instead next time. Perhaps by stringing them up by their intestines and leaving them to suffer for their sinful ways?

* * *

Saber panted harshly even though there was no need for a servant like her to breath at all. Rather it was the sheer fact that it was all she could do to prevent herself from feeling ill as she saw the corpses of several children on her way to confront Caster. He was a monster, that much was clear. There was no possible way that this person was in fact a Hero of some kind and yet he had been summoned. She supposed that marked another factor in for the corruption of the Holy grail.

It was only a moment later and she happened upon Caster even as he wrapped his disfigured hand around the child's skull and prepared to pierce the abdomen with his abnormally large fingernails.

"Caster!" Saber roared. She couldn't approach yet. With the child still alive there was a slim chance that his life could be saved. "Release him! Immediately!"

"Ah, Jeanne!" Caster declared happily dropping the child on the ground allowing him to scramble onto his feet and run straight to Saber, the person who was clearly here to save him. "You've come!"

Saber ignored him for the most part, more focused on patting the child to try and give him some sense of ease. They were no older than seven or eight at most and the event would likely scar them for the rest of their life. As long as they lived however, that didn't matter.

"There is a castle up ahead," Saber tried to reassure the child again with a small hug. "The people there will help take care of you until we can take you back to your parents." Her gaze shifted back into a glare as she settled her eyes back onto Caster even as she tried to pry the child loose and usher him towards the direction she came from…only the child wouldn't move.

"Wha-!" The boy's back erupted into a fountain of blood and flesh as a monster sprung up from within and wrapped around Saber restraining her completely.

Saber's eyes widened in shock. It was all she could do. At the moment considering.

"Come back to me Jeanne." Caster's arms were held wide as though trying to embrace Saber into his embrace. "And we shall go back to France and wipe the country from the planet!" His voice immediately changed from seemingly kind to hysterically mad in but an instant. "They will suffer for putting you through such torture! We will burn it all!"

Saber momentarily forgot about the creature restraining her even as she wrestled with it to break free and wondered if this wasn't actually Berserker before her with Caster attributes. He as certainly mad. Though, on the other hand, with those few words she really did know he was the mad Gilles de Rais, a fervent supporter of Saint Jeanne D'arc. She could not for the life of her figure out why before now he had her confused with someone else. Now though it was rather simple, she and this Jeanne must have an uncanny resemblance. Enough so that his twisted mind mistook her for Jeanne.

"Ngh!" Saber grunted as she once again worked to pull herself free, though it was no more successful than the last time she tried. A bit more of something else would be required.

"Invisible air!" Saber cried and in an instant the creature that had been wrapped around her was torn to pieces, one unfortunate piece even slapping Caster in the face as she readied herself to strike him down.

"Jeanne!" Caster crowed, horror apparent on his face. "Do you not wish to witness your salvation?"

"I," Saber leapt forwards like a rocket, "am not Jeanne!" Only to be captured by the ankle as another of the monsters erupted from one of the other corpses and swung her like a rag doll across the forest floor and into a tree.

"Nonsense!" Gilles exclaimed, his horror apparent. "I will make you see the light Jeanne, even if I have to kill everyone to do it!"

Saber was cornered now as all of the previously motionless corpses came to life and birthed the same demon that she had seen before, surrounding her and cutting her off from Caster. As it was there was no way this battle would end, though she certainly would try.

Saber had to lean back as a tentacle struck out at her before she pivoted and cut it in half. There was no respite as she had to then turn once more and slash through several more. Again, again and again.

There seemed to be no end to their numbers even as she was sure that she had surpassed the original count of monsters before her. It made no sense. Surely by now Gilles had to be running low on mana, unless…his Noble Phantasm. She couldn't think of anything else that could possibly allow for Caster to summon the ludicrous number of familiars that he had.

Saber cut through another as it tried to bind her wrists. She would have been in trouble had she still retained her injury from her battle with Lancer. While she felt slightly upset at the moment that she couldn't finish the battle properly, it was a great boon that she wasn't hindered otherwise she felt that she would be having a much harder time than she was currently having.

"Invisible air!" Saber pierced the hoard of demons in the direction of Caster and sure enough, something that could potentially be classified as Noble Phantasm was in his hands. A book that seemed to leak a miasma of darkness. Now if only she could reach it.

* * *

Well, well, look at those little legs go.

I kind of wanted to shout out to Rin to just say 'Hello' but knew that it was probably best that I didn't for the simple reason that she'd lead us to where Uryuu would be thanks to that handy compass she has. Assuming of course that we keep our Prana output really low and our presence doesn't over power the one Uryuu will be giving off.

Of course this had all happened after I hit Rider over the head much to her confusion for jumping off of a thirty story building without warning me. I may have almost shit my pants…Onto other matters, I was now being carried in Riders arms until we came across Uryuu and one of us would do the deed and kill the murderer.

Question. Does killing the murderer make you a murderer? I kind of think it does, since you'd be killing someone even though said person you'd be killing would be saving lots of other people. At least you wouldn't be making things worse I guess. It also means that every single hero ever is a murderer of some kind. Doesn't sound appealing at all. I guess that's why they're called Heroes.

"Kane." Rider whispered as she landed on a rooftop right overhead of where Rin had decided was a good place to hide in the trash, right next to a stairwell going into some underground bar.

Hmm, I vaguely remember something like this being the place where a bunch of kids should be lying in puddles of their own drool or something. That was worrying enough really for us to go in and free the children and guide them into police custody.

"Let's go in too." I said to Rider as she stepped over the edge.

After waiting a moment Rin peeked her head out and ran down the stairs before opening the door at the bottom, not taking notice of Rider landing soundlessly behind her and slipping in through the door right after Rin.

"Kotone!" Rin cried as soon as she accidentally kicked a young girl at her feet when walking past. Falling to her knees, Rin shook Kotone a few times without any response being given. The girl was clearly comatose as were all of the other children in the room with them.

Rin, Rider and myself saw them all, strewn over the room in various odd positions over the various tables and lounges that would make most of them feel sore when they woke up. I doubted any of them would notice however in favour of trying to figure out where they were when they did wake up.

Rider must have noticed before he came through the door as she put me down on my feet and turned to face Uryuu whom had just entered and brought three more children with him. In contrast to his overactive expression from the first time I saw him he seemed rather bored. Perhaps it was because kidnapping children was too easy for him now. It didn't matter in the end really.

"Oi, oi, oi," Uryuu said catching the attention of Rin who gasped as soon as she turned around and saw the six new people in the room. "What are you doing here?"

Eh, fuck it.

"Hey," I paused to yawn for a second, "Win!" Gahhhh, "…Rin," I tested the name before starting over. "Hey Rin!" I waved to her putting on my biggest smile and waving at her. I'd ruined my image. It was gone, forever. Though my introduction still certainly got the shocked look that I wanted. It was clearly screwing with her mind trying to figure out exactly what was going on. Why was I alive, I'd been missing for days, probably had a funeral too.

"Eh!" Rin gasped seeing us all standing facing each other and well, there wasn't time for much else after that as Rider grabbed Uryuu's wrists and snapped them with her hands causing him to cry out in pain and drawing a slightly horrified look from Rin. Riiiiight.

"Um, Rider," I drew my servants attention even as Uryuu began swearing at the two of us. "Could we do this maybe after all of the children are gone?"

Rider didn't question me for a second seemingly somehow seeing Rin's petrified look from beneath her blindfold even as the girls tiny compass went haywire in the presence of Rider. She simply threw Uryuu onto the other side of the bar while simultaneously removing the bangle that was emitting a purple haze from his wrist and destroying it in one go.

It had the intended reaction as almost immediately after all of the children in the room awoke and either began crying or wondering where they were. I may have experience dealing with children in my past life as a teacher but I always wanted to leave when a child started crying. I had to quickly squash the slight feeling of leaving bawling children to their demise for the simple reason that I couldn't do it. Wouldn't be able to live with myself.

"Alright!" I called out catching the attention of all of the children in the room. "Everyone out!" and straight after they all ran for the door and up the steps straight past Rider, Rin and myself…That was easy.

"K-K-Kane-san?" Rin said, her voice shaking slightly. Understandable, I'd just basically come in and freed all of the children she was supposed to save and commanded a woman who easily snapped the wrists of a fully-grown man in one go.

"Ahh! They all got away!" Uryuu crowed as he climbed over the counter before promptly freezing when he caught site of the woman who had easily broken his arms in a split second.

On one hand I really wanted to stay and watch Rider kill him or do it myself. On the other there was a clearly petrified Rin Kneeling on the floor off to the side, her friend Kotone having long since forgotten her in the rush to leave the creepy establishment…Alright, alright. I guess I'd have to be Rin's saviour today. I held my hand out to her.

"Come on Rin-san." I grasped Rin's hand as she held it out to me and pulled her to her feet before leading her out the door even as she stared at Rider as we walked past, clearly trusting me enough to get past the mana source that could rip her to pieces in the blink of an eye according to her compass. Something memorable I guess. I paused and turned to face Rider. "Could you take care of this for me Rider?" I asked and received a slight nod as Rider then hauled Uryuu to his feet as soon as my feet passed the threshold to the bar and went up the steps.

I took only a moment later as I heard something else snap and what sounded like a body hitting the floor. A merciful death I suppose. I could feel Rider's animosity through our bond and knowing her form our brief relationship so far I could tell that she may have wanted to take a little bit longer than that.

Unfortunately, it had the unintended side effect of making Rin flinch and grasp my hand tighter and pull herself closer to me. She clearly understood what had just happened even as Rider joined us at the top of the stairs a moment later without Uryuu.

"Rin," I called to the girl clinging to me as she stared somewhat horrified at Rider. "She won't hurt you." I tried to get her to relax slightly even as she still clung to my arm. She turned to me however, slightly shocked that I was still alive despite the disappearances meaning the unfortunate deaths of many school children.

"How, who…uh?" Rin fumbled for the right words. She was clearly still somewhat shocked. A contrast to the feeling of a weight having been lifted from my shoulders.

I had no reason to lie, so I decided to be blunt.

"That guy back there is the reason so many people in Fuyuki have died recently…" I paused unsure whether or not to delve further into the conversation. Probably best I didn't talk too much about magic. "He killed my parents and tried to kill me too. Rider saved me." That was probably as far as I should go. No telling who she'd talk to. "So we're safe with her ok."

"Ri-right." Rin let go of me trying to steel herself.

* * *

She wasn't getting anywhere like this. At this rate it would be her falling to caster. Kind of ironic really. The class with the highest magical resistance stat of all of the servants, Saber, falling to a servant that utilised only magic, Caster. She should be the one winning this battle.

The level of the familiars was no problem, rather it was the sheer number that she had to hold back form herself lest she become over run by the creatures. There had to be something else she could do. There had to be. 'Invisible air' had already proven to be quite useful in this battle so far at repelling the demons from herself, perhaps if she could ride the passage created it would give her the needed upper hand to slay Gilles.

Saber sighed. It would have to do. There was no time to charge her Excalibur to wipe Gilles from the face of the planet, the demons made sure of that, and she lacked Avalon which would protect her from any number of hits she may take meaning she couldn't afford to be struck down. One chance.

Swiping her sword to the side once more Saber batted off a demon that was attempting to get her from her blind side and killed it only to have another regenerate from its corpse. Truly a difficult problem to be solved with overwhelming firepower any other time she had a choice in the matter.

"Invisible air!" Saber cried once more thrusting Excalibur forwards and releasing a torrent of wind. She didn't waste a single fraction of a second afterwards and rocketed forwards with a swift application of 'prana burst' to her legs…and then everything froze, the monsters all stopped in there advance for a split second for some reason Saber couldn't possibly fathom. It didn't matter in the end however as Saber realised she had slightly misjudged the distance between her and Caster. She would have never made it on time otherwise.

"Master…" Caster mumbled, his eyes gaining a distant look to them, entirely unfocused on the scene before him even as Sabers sword cleaved through him from neck to groin ending his life and causing his body to shift into motes of gold light that faded into the night.

Saber had heard Caster's words. It appeared that she owed the one who killed the Master of Caster a favour whether they knew it or not.

* * *

Sometime earlier however as Saber left the Einzbern castle, a thought dead Master approached.

"Hoohh…" Kayneth grinned to himself as he took note of Saber leaving. "This will be easier than I expected." He said to himself as he walked forwards followed by shambling corpses with innards that looked to be covered in a silver like substance.

* * *

**Word count: 8391**

**Sorry this took a while. Was doing uni assignments and what not. Have exams too next week so don't expect another update for at least two weeks. The only reason this came out today was because I already had most of it done so soon after the last chapter came out.**

**Reishin Amara:**

**Yeah, that does happen in Prisma Illya however the corrupt grail was discovered before the conflict could actually begin so that path can't be taken anyway. Thanks for pointing it out anyway. I'd totally forgotten about Prisma Illya.**

**CD123505: **

**Fullbring capabilities are pretty low right now. Can use some bringer light to enhance physical abilities and walk on stuff that's not supposed to be walked on but that's about it for now. **

**Attacked by a hollow. Yeah, if he was super spiritually aware or something, and while he is indeed spiritually aware the reasoning that is given in bleach for the high concentration of Hollows in Karakura is because it is a spiritual ground that happens once every one hundred years or something so it should hypothetically be far less likely to encounter both hollows and Shinigami outside this area. To get Fullbring powers a person has to be in their mothers womb when a hollow attacks and survive the encounter meaning that he doesn't have to necessarily have been attacked by a hollow.**

**I'm afraid I can't tell you what powers the MC will get lest it spoil the discovery or something but it will be pretty cool I think and possibly OP under the right circumstances.**

**Guest:**

**What's a Bount?...Nah, just kidding. Bounts won't be included as an anime only and in my opinion crappy side story.**

**As for experimenting. There will be some. Fullbring, while turning Ichigo into a power ranger could have been better, is kind of an unexplored avenue in Canon so it will be expanded upon greatly.**

**Shirou's power is to replicate something with mana that has a defined existence. For instance, a knife has a defined existence. It is a knife. Caliburn that he traces in the Fate route has a defined existence as a sword from the stone. All of the items that Shirou and EMIYA have ever traced have a defined existence that replicates the memories and acquired experience using the blade to replicate it to near perfection, suffering only a measly rank down with Noble Phantasms. It borders on the third magic in this sense if you liken it to Fullbring. That however is where the similarities end. More on that later...**

**king gilgamesh:**

**Yeah, I wasn't to proud with the way it ended either. Hope this chapter sums it up somewhat. Time loop spaghettified**


	6. CH 6: Relinquished

**CH 6: Relinquished**

* * *

To desecrate a cemetery by robbing it of the bodies that had been laid to rest in would be declared by most to be one of the most heinous things you could possibly do and yet magi walked the fine line between life and death every day, committing atrocities that would make most flinch upon mere mention. This of course included the aforementioned grave robbing.

Kayneth required bodies for his plan to work and he wasn't about to be shot himself so he required a number of suitable shields between himself and his final objective, Kiritsugu Emiya. The man had blown up his hotel rather than confront him directly as he would have expected any self-respecting magus to do. This was the magus killer after all. He should have expected it. The man after all had shot down an air liner in his youth for a single target. What's to say he wouldn't perform the same thing with a hotel filled with innocents?

It seemed however somewhere in that chaos of constant survival and death that the man had gained a heart, or whatever a ceaseless murderer could call the still beating organ within their chest. He had unexpectedly evacuated the entire hotel before blowing it up with him still inside. Sparing innocent lives didn't seem like something the magus killer would do. He had killed over four-hundred people in a single aircraft after all.

Perhaps at this point he could use some of that burgeoning feeling of what the man might think a human feels like and feel somewhat conflicted when confronted with the corpses of his fellow countrymen…Perhaps not, they were already dead after all. It stood to reason however that the technological marvel known as the hand gun could easily kill any unprepared person from a range and so a man known as the magus killer whom had killed nearly every single target with the primitive weapons would have somehow devised a way to get past bounded fields on the fly. A respectable if somewhat annoying trait.

To solve this Kayneth had decided to utilise his knowledge of formalcraft, necromancy and his own special personal creation Volumen Hydrargyrum to manipulate multiple corpses from a distance and serve as his shield between himself and the man. What was a better shield than a solid wall on which to impact?

Almost none really. A bounded field could be overcome, though Kayneth still tried to fathom how such a man was so successful at such a thing, and as such since his mystic code was technically a fusion of bounded fields and other arts it would be best it stood as a final line of defence while the corpses took the brunt of the repelling force head on.

It had paid off tremendously in Kayneth's own professional opinion. While it did take some time and it was far from perfect, the shambling corpses filled with mercury did everything they were required to do. They could even substitute as a short range familiar if required, allowing Kayneth to 'see' what they were seeing.

As such when he sent the first corpse into the Einzbern castle and it was filled to the brim with ball bearings from the numerous claymores that had been hidden within expensive looking busts made from what appeared to be cheap ceramic material if they were this willing to dispose of them so carelessly was the right choice.

There also didn't appear to be any magical contamination with the weapon used so it was entirely possible Kayneth could have survived the ordeal single handedly if he had been the one to trigger the trap. Nevertheless, caution could not be overlooked for the simple matter. He refused to be laid to the side because of one simple callous mistake.

"You will have to do better than that Magus Killer." Kayneth boldly declared as he himself marched into the main foyer where the single corpse he had originally sent in fell apart, allowing the mercury within to join his own personal defence as he discarded the damaged body.

Of course, no one responded, it would be tantamount to suicide to do so.

Instead Kayneth sent out probes with thin strands of Mercury acting as feelers to detect heat and vibrations in the atmosphere that could be used to determine whether or not the man he was after was inside one of the innumerable rooms that occupied the castle. Truly, the Einzbern's were never ones to do things by halves. If they were to live in a residence if only temporarily it would be fitting of the Einzbern tradition.

There! The second floor, twelfth room on the left.

Sending more bodies shambling up the stairs at a quickened pace Kayneth stalked along the bottom floor to gain another advantage and strike from below. It would be best to pin the enemy from multiple directions after all.

Once Kayneth arrived at his destination he waited for a moment for the corpses he had sent above to charge in through the two main entrances to the room and the gun fire to begin. Once it had Kayneth sent his own manoeuvrable whips of mercury cutting into the ceiling and dropping out the floor of the room Kiritsugu was within.

…He didn't charge in needlessly however and decided to take a page from the Magus Killers book for once no matter how much it disgusted him to do so and waited for the man to approach…

He did not approach…what is he doing?

A loud bang sounded off in the room above and Kayneth noted that he lost one of his shambling corpses due to the magic within going haywire inside the very circuitry he had crafted with painstaking care, ripping it to pieces from the inside out.

He would have to take care of that weapon. For it to tear through his magic so easily spoke of a danger orders of magnitude than he had been led to originally believe. There was no way he would confront the Magus Killer as long as he possessed that weapon lest he suffer potential irreparable damage to himself. There was no telling what such a weapon could do to a magus such as himself.

Instead he waited and waited. Soon the gunfire drew to a close, three more of his little toys becoming severely damaged in the process despite the reinforcement from his mercury solution. They would still serve their purpose for now since they were guarding both entrances and he was guarding the only exit.

A loud boom echoed through the hole in the ceiling before Kayneth took note of Kiritsugu making a dash through the now open doorway under the effect of some kind of bounded field. He'd thrown some kind of canister before hand and it had exploded quite spectacularly. He had to give the modern world of man credit where it was due. To have an explosive so readily available was difficult for even some magi. No matter.

Kayneth raised himself through the ceiling on a platform of mercury and sent more corpses after the man being carful to note where he was with his mercurial weapon.

"Ire: Sanctio." He muttered the words and tendrils of mercury shot out from his own personal pool and thoroughly searched throughout the house looking for the infernal man. A sureway to find him quickly.

…What was this?

Nothing?

Perhaps that bounded field the assassin utilised was more than a party trick after all. The light that bent around him when he was travelling implied that he was bending space to some degree however the number of steps taken said otherwise. Time? He was bending time, accelerating a field of time around himself that allowed him to accelerate his movement through space giving the wavering edge to his movements. It made sense. To some degree. He didn't know that Emiya was once part of a magus family and possessed a crest. It would be the only way he could have come across it in his line of work.

Hm, the more you know.

There!

Vibrations could be felt in the structure of the building. The epicentre of the effect being quite the distance from him now.

Emiya surely must be cautious for such a thing to happen. It did put a smile on Kayneth's face. To have the magus killer on the run.

Changing the commands of the mercury laden corpses he sent them after Emiya with a tad bit more ferocity this time.

* * *

Kiritsugu panted as he rounded another corner and whipped out his calico once more and tried to fill a corpse that had inexplicably begun running towards him. Unfortunately, it didn't do much damage at all and only chipped at the bones as the rest of the mercury that the creature was bathed in either absorbed the bullets or stopped them entirely.

He'd wasted two clips so far and had to open one of the stashes he'd placed around the mansion in case of an event like this happened. He was about to deplete his third and he'd only killed four of these things so far with the damn gun! It was almost useless. His contender had taken two out through pure collateral and his grenade he hadn't looked back on properly to tell, but just hearing those corpses pull themselves back together with the mercury was a horror show in itself.

He of course knew whom his opponent was, Kayneth. He didn't know of anyone else in the war besides the man that utilised mercury in such a way. Ingenious really, utilising the sheer density and volume of the liquid metal to form almost indestructible autonomous corpses that could be remotely controlled from a distance. He wouldn't get the chance to tell the man that though.

The corpse he was shooting dropped as he hit something vital, he could only assume it was the small runic inscription he could see in the small magic circle on the bones of the creature, but the calico was inaccurate as it was and so it wasn't best to rely on it for this task. He'd probably be better off trying to bury the man under this mansion. Though it probably wouldn't work this time just like it hadn't the last.

Instead he'd have to leave the mansion as quickly as possible even as another of the corpses rounded the corner and lunged with blades of mercury jutting out of its arms.

"Time alter: double accel!" Kiritsugu stepped backwards and released another grenade from his belt, pulling the pin and successfully lobbing the device into the ribcage of the corpse just as three more rounded the corner. He barely had enough time to get away from the explosion in time, or rather he wouldn't have had it if it weren't for his next few words. "Time alter: triple accel!"

There would be hell to pay for using such a spell so casually.

Kiritsugu ran forwards at triple his usual pace gaining the necessary distance to not be killed by the shockwave of the grenade before it exploded. When it did something whizzed past his cheek and cut it open causing blood to leak out. Nothing too bad, but it had clearly been close.

He took a quick look behind himself to find the mercury rearranging the body parts already into something else. Not good. He shook his head and continued forwards.

Now that he had gained some ground it was time to put this running away to some good use.

He had firmly planted himself on the western side of the mansion and thankfully there were windows which meant he could leave the premises though he would have much rather used the stairs though he had already learnt his lesson the hard way when he came face to face with a whole hoard of mercurial familiars and had to once again activate his magic crest to escape.

He couldn't count how many times he'd used it already, though thankfully he'd only had to use the triple variant of the spells he knew how to use twice. He didn't know if he could handle any more and wouldn't like to test it out lest the outside worlds time didn't mesh with his body's time properly and tore him to shreds. His body already ached terribly and blood dribbled from his lips. Internal damage to his organs…

Never mind that now. There was a window ahead.

Kiritsugu reinforced his legs with prana and leapt through the window and started heading in the direction of Saber by rounding back around towards the southern side of the mansion.

His calico was practically useless now as the magazine was empty and he had no spares but he held onto it anyway strapping the empty gun to his belt and pulling out some razor wire instead after donning some leather gloves that he kept handy in his pocket.

For all a magi's fool hardy ways Kiritsugu had been surprisingly insistent with Iri that she teach him at least the basics of using wire to form a ready-made homunculus familiar. Of course, his skill with it was nowhere near her level but it didn't need to be. He had a jagged flying blade floating by him a second later which unfortunately could only be used once unlike Iri whom could use hers indefinitely or until it was destroyed. Well whatever.

A glass window above him broke open and he saw the man he hadn't seen during the entire attack, Kayneth.

"Running away are we Magus Killer?" Kayneth sneered at Kiritsugu even as he hung outside the window on a platform of mercury. He sure did like his platform of mercury.

"Hardly." Kiritsugu returned. "I'm merely advancing in another direction." The implications were simple enough for someone of Kayneth's standing to understand. Kiritsugu basically just said he wasn't a threat and could be dealt with whenever he wanted. After all the best way to kill an enemy was to get under their skin and hope they made a mistake, especially when they outclass you this badly.

"Youuu…" Kayneth's face scrunched up slightly. "I'm going to enjoy killing you and taking Saber."

* * *

"Ha ha ha!" Irisviel panted heavily. She wasn't used to running so much. In fact, she doesn't ever remember running so much. The most she'd done was when she was playing with Illyasviel and even then that wasn't much.

"Maiya…Can we…slow down?" Irisviel asked pleadingly to the woman leading her by the hand to make sure she didn't fall behind.

Maiya looked like she had yet to break a sweat though her breathing was slightly heavier than usual. She turned to look at the quickly fading Homunculus. Weren't they supposed to be superior to humans or something?

"Can you feel anyone nearby?" Maiya returned her own question as she knew the Homunculus while still technically within the Einzbern bounded field could detect just about any and all intruders, sans Caster whom had made it almost halfway into the territory before he was detected somehow.

Irisviel paused for a second to focus before shaking her head to the woman leading her. "No, there's no one coming."

Maiya merely nodded in acceptance and dropped her pace to a brisk walk allowing the Homunculus to breathe a sigh of relief. She needed to get into shape…or rather she would if this wasn't literally her last week on the planet. In hindsight, she really really should have taken Kiritsugu's offer to run away more seriously at the time he said it. She'd have all the time in the world to get into better shape then…could Einzbern Homunculi even get into better shape through physical exercise?

Homunculi were crated to subsist on pretty much only mana but they could still eat, sooo maybe?

It was then in the middle of her musing that she was interrupted by Maiya. "Can you still detect Saber and Caster?"

Irisviel frowned a little before closing her eyes for a second and focusing. She too was a little curious about whether or not Saber had yet defeated Caster.

Hm, she could sense Saber was still fighting. That meant that Caster was still alive for the moment and was doing a rather good job at defending against Saber despite the inherent weakness the Caster class should have to Saber. Why was that though?

Irisviel stumbled slightly after kicking a root just as she saw the tentacle shaped monsters that surrounded Saber. Ah, that would appear to be the reason, though Saber still didn't look any worse for wear. If Saber had an opportunity to get close the fight would no doubt be over by now. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything she could do to help Saber. It left her feeling quite frustrated.

Opening her eyes once more Irisviel just managed to avoid stumbling over another root before she was held up by Maiya. "Saber is still fighting Caster. It appears she's having trouble getting past Caster's familiars."

Maiya frowned at that. She'd been told that it should be a rather easy fight when it came down to it. The Saber class did have A rank magic resistance after all. Familiars it would appear though were an entirely different story. The only way they could help Saber was to get into the city and hunt down Caster's Master while hopefully avoiding the other Masters…It really wasn't worth the effort. Soon enough Saber should be able to kill Caster and that would be it.

Irisviel gasped for a moment, her eyes widening for a moment.

"Lancer's Master is back at the Castle!" She exclaimed. A flair of magic must have triggered the bounded field allowing her to recognise it.

Maiya, in all her years of unfeeling servitude nearly groaned. Nothing was going according to plan. Kiritsugu hadn't expected Kayneth to survive the attack on the hotel and yet here he was after having an entire building dropped on top of him. Magi were painful to deal with.

"Come." Maiya said as she broke back into a sprint latching onto Irisviel's hand and dragged her forcefully into a run as she yelped. She'd drag this girl out of the forest like her life depended on it. Then, then they'd kill Caster's Master. He'd been spotted on one of Kiritsugu's familiars the previous night though the man hadn't deigned to pick up on this fact until the truce was officially offered. His appearance would be unmistakable.

* * *

"_Saber," _Kiritsugu began pausing for a second as he whipped out his Thompson Contender and took aim at Kayneth as he hung out of the window three stories high. _"How are you faring against Caster?"_

"…_With extreme difficulty. His familiars are preventing me from closing the distance."_ Saber replied before cutting the connection Kiritsugu had established.

That is unfortunate.

What was even more unfortunate however was the fact that Kayneth had somehow managed to recognise the possible danger that his Thompson contender possessed and had hidden himself back inside the castle just before he could fire a shot off and hope for the fall to kill Kayneth.

"Aooo…" a mumbling groan sounded out from above. Out of the window appeared one of the things that he had been trying to kill all night, only this one appeared to have been stitched together using several human bodies, as were shown by the four heads protruding from where the neck and shoulders should be and several human arms and legs sprouted from the torso.

"You've got to be kidding." Was all Kiritsugu could say as he broke into a run in the direction he was originally headed, even as he felt the earth rumble when the thing fell out of the window.

Meanwhile Kayneth merely grimaced at the sight of the creature thing that his Volumen Hydrargyrum had created under his influence. It was draining his prana like a man dying of thirst would drink water. He could only hold such a thing up even with the influence of a ley line he had tapped into for a minute or two at best, its total mana cost outdoing most of the other corpses he had combined. Thankfully this also offered greater ability otherwise he would never have considered doing such a thing in the first place.

He followed after it, keeping an eye on the man he aimed to kill through the familiar.

A smile adorned his face as he could see the panicked look on the magus killers face, right until said magus killer spun around, took aim and fired his gun. The connection between him and his familiar was lost for a brief moment before it was stumbling after the man again…hm, it appeared that some of the familiar had been destroyed by the action allowing the magus killer a scant few steps of an advance before the behemoth was after him again and rapidly closing the distance.

* * *

Kirei stood silently before the podium on the small stage in the church he was currently housed within. Admittedly there were a few other things that he would prefer doing at this moment such as going after Kiritsugu Emiya and discovering what exactly drove the empty husk of a man to operate so much.

Personal gain? No, he was working for the Einzberns. Yes, they would undoubtedly pay handsomely, but the magus killer had retired years ago and from what little Kirei remembered about the man's profile, he was rather well off from all of his time hunting down magi with sealing designations.

Someone else's gain? Clearly. But for what reason? It still eluded him and the King living in the basement of the church drinking his wine and reading plastic modelling magazines had implied that it would be within his best interests that he not go after the man tonight. Why? He was unsure of even that. The Kings motives eluded him still. First, he had been entranced by the beauty that was Saber and now he was drinking wine and entertaining himself. Waiting for the knight to come to him he said.

Instead, Gilgamesh said that it may be more interesting to pursue the child that Assassin had caught sight of earlier that night while he was crossing the Mion river bridge with Rider no less. A child Master?

No, that wouldn't be what Gilgamesh meant. It was Rider. Rider still irked the man somewhat for a reason that Kirei could not fathom. Still though, Gilgamesh had implied that he may find entertainment tonight if he did follow the child rather than pursue Kiritsugu. The only reason that Gilgamesh had given was that out on a little stroll through the city he had caught Lancer's Master in the range of his Clairvoyance skill, clearly frustrated about the happenings that had to do with the Hyatt Hotel collapsing on his head.

It dawned on Kirei then that the only way he would get to have this talk with Kiritsugu was if he was to find and kill Kayneth himself, though that mystic code of his would pose to be troublesome and nigh impossible to get past with his skill set. He had to, with some regret, let Kiritsugu go for now and hope that he survived the night.

"Master." Assassin materialised beside the podium to his right. Matte black in colouration was the skin, leaving the only truly outstanding thing about their appearance, their muscled body and the slip of a bone white mask that adorned their face. Only one of the hundred he had summoned of course.

"Assassin." Kirei greeted.

"We have located the child again with Rider." Assassin explained. "He appears to be searching for Caster's Master from what little we could tell and is doing so by pursuing the Tohsaka Heiress that seems to have wandered into the city."

"…" Kirei paused for a moment before looking at Assassin as though to try and find out whether or not the servant was lying. A fruitless notion as if Assassin were to lie he would not be able to detect it. That and the servant had already proven themselves loyal to him so there was little reason to fear. "Truly?"

"Yes Master." Assassin confirmed with a bow. "A likely reason is that perhaps a school friend of hers was kidnapped by either Caster or his Master and is unaware of the danger such a thing poses to her and has taken it into her own hands to find her friend dead or alive."

He didn't know why he moved now, only that something in his hear told him to pursue the young Tohsaka…was this the joy Gilgamesh spoke of?

"Take me to her." He commanded Assassin and was promptly lead out of the chapel. Most of the Masters of worthy note would be distracted by the combat at the Einzbern mansion leaving him free to scour the city. Perhaps Gilgamesh was right in his assumption after all despite the clear desire to remove Rider from the world through someone else's hands if he were able.

* * *

Kiritsugu ducked and weaved through a series of attacks made by the Mercurial beast just barely managing to avoid a lethal blow to his neck only to trip and stumble over the uneven forest floor as he approached Saber.

"Gah!" Kiritsugu grunted, controlling the yell that threatened to pierce through his throat as a blade like arm lanced forwards and pierced through his shoulder before ripping upwards and almost severing his right arm from where it was.

Kiritsugu used what seemed to be fumes to power his movement even as he called out, "Time alter: double accel!" and managed to use his left arm to wrench his body forwards enough to avoid the blade that had aimed to skewer his heart before stumbling to his feet and taking off again while clutching at his shoulder where his arm had almost been severed. Some reinforcement magic could stem the blood flow for now, but he needed to make it to Iri, she had Avalon.

"_Saber!"_ Kiritsugu called through their connection once more hoping that she had taken care of Caster already. He would have called her sooner if he knew that the battle would end up like this but he really didn't want to try his chances against both Caster and Kayneth at the same time. Kayneth would most certainly die in that scenario, but so would he when Caster had familiars to spare and he had no solid plan to deal with an endless hoard of monsters.

"_Coming!"_ Saber called back telling him that she had finally dealt with Caster. And it was about time too.

He could hear it too, the way the wind roared in the forest and a flash off gold somewhere off in the distance. At least it was in the distance until Saber's foot was planted squarely by his side and her sword swung across her body at the behemoth obliterating it in a single blow. Saved by the bell it would seem.

It didn't form back together that time and Kiritsugu took that as a cue to collapse against a tree and slide to the ground. His vision was marked with black dots though his mind was still mostly clear for what it was worth even while a haze seemed to sweep over him.

"Kiritsugu!" Saber cried as she saw the blood seeping from his shoulder and mouth. His eyes drooped slightly too just to show how tired he physically was. There was no time to observe however as Saber remembered that Irisviel had some minor healing abilities and if they made it in time Kiritsugu's life could possibly be spared.

As emasculated as Kiritsugu might have felt a woman bearing him in her arms as she did he really didn't care as Saber took off at full pace in the direction of the city after he had told her where he had sent Irisviel. It was only a matter of time.

* * *

Rin stayed by my side even as I expected us to be attacked by a tentacle monster before we even managed to leave the alleyway. By there not being said monster, I can only assume that Saber managed to kill Caster soon after we killed Uryuu, or rather Rider did.

Right before my head could turn around the corner Rin pulled me back as she saw the police on the other side of the road. A roving patrol because of the recent child kidnappings no doubt. With them were all of the children that had been released, of which the police were taking note of their names and any phone numbers the children may remember. At least there was one happy ending tonight.

It wasn't long until I felt a tug on my sleeve however and turned to face Rin.

"Kane-san," Rin seemed to be unsure of how to begin. "A-are you…are you fighting in the Holy Grail War?" Rin's face twisted.

It would appear that despite Rin being sent away for the majority of the war that her father or whomever she was staying with had deigned to tell her what was happening exactly out here.

"Yes I am Rin-san." I nodded to her as I turned my head back around to watch as the last of the children that were freed were loaded into police cars and taken to what I could only assume to be the police station where they would stay until their parents, if they were even still alive, came to pick them up. "…" I was silent for the moment as the final police car rounded a corner and vanished from sight.

Rin seemed somewhat unsettled when I turned back to face her however as she was looking down at her feet. "Have you seen my Father?" her eyes rose back to meet mine and I could only slowly tear my vision from hers as I remembered that last night I had commanded Rider, the very same woman standing right behind us, to kill her Father.

I didn't like lying, and more often than not I tended to hurt people with a truth than I would have if I had just said nothing or lied about whatever we were talking about but I seriously thought this time would be a good time to exercise the latter most and lie. I didn't want to ruin the small friendship that could grow from our interaction by telling her that I killed her Father. Technically speaking, I personally hadn't seen her father…ever, so it was kind of true.

"No, what does he look like?" I asked to try and maintain the mask of me not knowing.

"!" Rin was unable to respond as Rider made a small sound of surprise.

Rin didn't get her chance to answer as Rider wrapped her arms around the both of us and sprung a good distance away onto the street just before a swarm of bugs hit the ground where we had been moments before hand.

"He, hehehehahaha!" a mans voice laughed from the place where the insectoid creatures had crashed.

If anyone, I was willing to bet it was Kariya whom had just arrived. Who else besides decrepit old bug man Zouken used bugs? In addition, the voice did seem rather young compared to what I imagined the old man's voice to sound like, so that was another point towards it being Kariya.

"Hello Rin-chan!" a man in a pair of tracksuit trousers and a grey hoody said as he stepped out of the shadows. His voice elicited an obvious reaction of shock out of the young girl to my side, especially when the street lamps provided just enough light to see the disfigured half of his face where it seemed to have been eaten away by the parasites looming beneath his skin.

"U-uncle!" Rin exclaimed, her face going pale in an instant.

She appeared to be a little woozy so I let her rest against my shoulder for the moment.

"What happened to you?" Rin called out clearly horrified with what had happened to the man. The way he was clutching his shoulder, the way he limped, the dead eye that had clouded over. It was clear that this man was grievously injured though Rin didn't know by what.

"This-" he paused looking over myself and Rider for a moment before nodding in a somewhat appreciative way. "This is what happens to those using the Matou magecraft." He said with a tone of finality in his voice. There was no mistaking that he knew that he wouldn't live past this war. It showed in his remaining eye.

It was then that Rin gasped, paled even further and then promptly collapsed into my arms, fainting on the spot. She'd just been basically told that her sister whom was adopted by the Matou's was destined to be eaten from the inside out. It was an understandable reaction. Only I wished Rin didn't have to see this potential end result. It was quite horrifying really. Seeing it behind a screen and animated didn't make up for the realism when it hit you. The guy looked like he was straight out of a horror film.

Looking at Kariya whose remaining eye was on me now I hoisted Rin up onto my back, slinging her arms around my neck and held onto her rear as she threatened to fall off if my hands ventured further down her legs.

Kariya quickly looked to Rin. "Riiiin ̴ " He called out to check if she was actually unconscious. When he didn't receive a response he relaxed somewhat before focusing on me again. "You a master kid?"

"Yeah." I responded. It was kind of obvious with the way that Rider held onto the chain daggers behind me. "A little bit after Caster was summoned." I told him making his eye widen a fraction before he rubbed the back of his head in a somewhat guilty fashion.

"Yeah, sorry about that." Kariya returned almost as though he were apologising for every magi misdeed ever. "You almost turned into one of his victims huh." He said mostly to himself before looking back to me noting the way my body was tensed and ready to run at any moment. "And you actually didn't know Rin's dad?" he changed the focus surprising me slightly. That was all he needed however before he smirked slightly. "Don't worry, I would have done the same thing. Bastard deserved it. Probably would have killed you without much trouble either." Kariya snorted.

For the longest moment, both of us just stood there watching each other. Rider didn't move because she couldn't defend me properly if she did and so she stayed by my side. Berserker didn't come because Kariya didn't want to hurt Rin accidentally. They were at an impasse.

"Kane!" Rider said in an urgent voice as Assassin's lined the perimeter, their presence concealment skill actually working for once and Kirei Kotomine whom appeared just around the block.

"Fuuuuck." I groaned to myself silently as Kirei approached and Kariya hissed to himself as well, no doubt cursing our luck.

Kirei's eyes turned to me as he got within fifteen metres of us. A small distance to close for someone of his calibre. Though that wasn't what shook me. His eyes crinkled slightly at the use of my words and no doubt strung some thoughts together in his mind before his eyes turned to Rider, only to have his shoulders start shaking.

Was he laughing?

"To think, that a child killed Tokiomi…" there was mirth clearly hidden within his voice even as his eyes strayed to Rin whom was still unconscious on my back and would likely remain that way for the rest of the night. "And that you also know his daughter. What a travesty."

The evidence wasn't there of course. He didn't know me, though since our physical appearances told that we were of around the same age I suppose he made the connection that in school we must have met and were at least on friendly terms at a minimum.

"It seems Gilgamesh was right after all." He murmured as a warmth ventured into his barren heart as he saw the young boys face begin to fall the longer they waited. He would most definitely have to tell Rin that this child was the one to kill her Father after he had dispatched of both Kariya and Rider. He'd leave the boy to Rin.

"Kane…" Rider trailed off in a dangerous tone. It was clear what she meant. "Be prepared to run."

Even as Rider said this Kariya materialised Berserker, the his of mana coalescing into the dark armoured form. No doubt Berserker would be more than a match for Assassin, his agility stat was likely through the roof, though Rider had left the battle at the docks before he could appear. I distinctly remember him being very impressive, physically at least in the anime so that would assure me.

Rider though, her hand drifted towards her face...oh, ohhhhh. I looked to one of the Assassins and tried to bring up that servant stat sheet that all Master's were supposed to be capable of. It worked, if barely, only the stat I wanted to see was showing so that was all that mattered. Rank C mana.

"_Sounds like a plan."_ I said to Rider through our link. It wouldn't do to have the enemy know what Rider was about to do after all.

Shortly after I glanced at Kariya, "Truce?"

He merely shrugged his shoulders in response. "Yeah, sure." Was his response since it was pretty obvious that neither of us were getting out of this alive without helping each other to some degree. "Just stay out of the way of Berserker. I'm not too sure he can tell friend from foe."

The remaining second that we waited seemed like an eternity as Berserker finished forming. When he did however, all of the servants gathered shot off like a shell out of a cannon, Berserker taking the lead as he skewered two assassin's on his way to Kirei. That wasn't enough however as Kirei had used the momentary distraction to make himself scarce and Rider had flung her chains across the street forming a network of chains for her to traverse and change directions at any moment as she used them to levy herself into the air for a more confusing three dimensional combat arena.

I myself however had turned tail and begun running away the moment it seemed like all of the other combatants seemed distracted enough, green sparks instantly igniting under my feet and accelerating me to speeds well beyond that of a regular human. All that training earlier today had begun to pay off after all, especially that water walking exercise I had done, it had allowed me to form a better feeling for the connection with the ground beneath my feet and amplify the effects even further.

A place I could go however was unclear, as the mansion we had been staying in was too close to the church to really count anymore. Lily had said that we weren't allowed near her place during the night so that was a no go. My old apartment? No, probably still a crime scene under investigation. It was a little hard to believe that it had only been two days since my parents had died, but I also wasn't allowed to think about them too much lest I also die from inattentiveness.

That caused me to blink slightly. I couldn't see any Assassin's following my trail as they should have. There was no need to hide from me as I was sure just even one of them would have been able to kill me by themselves. Did this mean that Kirei didn't wish to kill me? Perhaps, maybe it was just one of his ideas to torture Rin by knowing a school child managed to kill her Father.

Ha, goes to show what he knows. Rider may be on the physically weaker end of the spectrum at the moment but she was more than enough to deal with all of the Assassin's all at once. Especially if she used Cybele.

* * *

Rider pulled back once more using her superior strength to jam one of her nails through an Assassin that had strayed too close.

It was unfortunate though that she had to use her monstrous strength skill though just to keep up with a servant that was supposed to be the weakest of all servants. She was pretty sure that their agility and strength stats at the moment were the same, though she may have eked out just a bit higher on the spectrum.

A cursory glance to her surroundings and she dove once more to defend the master of Berserker even as the man's servant tore through the other Assassins like a hurricane. He was dispatching them left right and centre and showed no sign of slowing down much to the detriment of the master apparently. He was worse off for ware than he was when the battle had begun and it didn't seem like his servant had taken notice so it was her job to take care of the Assassins that strayed too close.

It was relatively easy however when the Assassins thought that they could use her chains that she had made span the width of the street. She waited for a moment that a number of them were standing on the chains all at once before she commanded it to move, causing it to snake up the bodies of the Assassins and crush them much like a python would their prey. A measly seven Assassins were dispatched and there were still seventy odd ones to go.

Her master though was nowhere to be found, so she deemed it safe enough to reveal the eyes that would give her identity away without a second thought. The Assassins didn't have a high enough stat to resist her eyes as she pulled away her blindfold constructed from Breaker Gorgon and revealed the grey eyes with an appearance similar to crystals and rectangular irises. The effects were immediately apparent as those within her line of sight immediately began to slow and the Assassins that had found themselves on the ground were unable to leave as their legs refused to move.

Rider didn't stop however as she plunged into the thick and utilised her monstrous strength to its full effect as he tore through the limbs and eyes of Assassins she met, all of the stats having been reduced by an entire rank during the petrification process and allowing her to kill them even as they tried to target her and end the effect by killing her.

Her senses wouldn't allow it as she twisted and turned her body through the hail of throwing knives only to push her fingers into the eyes of the closest Assassin and throw him into the line of fire, guarding her back from the others as she went about to kill even more. She took note of the Assassins whose legs had already turned to stone around her and others that were already affected up to their necks, only to have their bodies shatter into pieces when a lamp post was sent careening through the solidified flesh courtesy of Berserker.

The Assassins had begun dropping like flies once her eyes had been released from their confines and with a simple glance, she took note of how Kirei was no longer with them undoubtedly having taken note of how dangerous it was to stay around any longer. The man had clearly wanted to get closer to Kariya at the start but was left unable to when instead of running from the conflict Kariya had chosen to stand still in the middle and not move a muscle, only to send insects careening through the madness at the priest whom retreated to gain a better vantage point. It seemed the man had decided that the most dangerous spot in the battle unfolding was also the safest spot in the battle between the masters.

Case and point, the black keys that had been thrown from atop a small apartment building with incredible accuracy managed to pierce the decrepit magi's body causing him to stumble and scream out in pain, though Rider was careful not to look lest she need to disable her eyes to save the source of Prana for the beast that was Berserker. For once in it's life Berserker appeared to be paying attention to its master if not concerned for him and leapt towards the building, shoving fingers into stone for handholds and propelling its body the rest of the way with a single pull.

Ducking once more as she felt a thrown blade nearly collide with the back of her skull Rider twisted around bringing her leg high and kicking an Assassin across the face that had used the distraction to close the distance and aim for her kidneys with a knife that dripped a purple viscous fluid. A snap was heard as the neck of the Assassin broke and the body crumpled to the ground just as Rider hopped off of her other foot reaching for the chain above her head and pulling her body clear of the ground as the space then became occupied with knives before she raced upon it to glare at the Assassin that had targeted her initially before her fist plunged into the ribcage and snapped the sternum.

* * *

Ah, shit. He couldn't interrupt in this battle, he'd fucking die. He wasn't even sure he had the clearance to close off the road for the safety of the public even in his high position within the government.

Well, as long as no one else interfered it was alright he supposed. Better here than in a populated shopping mall…no, no, he was here looking for his daughter, then that kid he was after raced off and here he was chasing the damn thing. He thought of it this way. The kid had an unconscious girl on his back as he ran away and therefore it was likely that he had come across the guy that was kidnapping children, as well as his own daughter and managed to get away.

Looking ahead he could see the child having slowed down after running a solid two kilometres from the battle. It was pretty impressive, if he were a regular child of course. He knew better though. The damn kid was a Hunter. Pretty weird the UN didn't know about him yet with all the scouting they do. He certainly didn't recognise him from the files he'd been granted access to. Then again he could have missed the census if he moved here about a year ago.

No matter, all he had to do was catch up to the kid and conduct business as usual. As he should have been able to until the kid up and vanished with the death of his parents.

"…" He stilled his breathing for a moment as he heard something. A car. A rather loud one too. That or it was going full throttle through the streets at the moment.

The kid heard it too apparently and skidded to a stop on the pavement, green lights flickering under his feet to slow him down just before a car flew around the corner and spun around before hitting a curb and tilting upward slightly before landing back on all four wheels. It didn't move again however, even as both the child and he looked a little stunned at the flash looking car that now sported a few scrapes along the sides.

One of the doors opened and out stumbled a black-haired woman that promptly collapsed to her knees and threw up the contents of her stomach quite readily and he could hear the distinct mumbling of something along the lines such as 'never again, never'. Out of the drivers side however came a woman with a stunning figure, white hair and red eyes. A homunculus then. How many Humans in the world looked like that after all, especially so well kept for an albino?

The kid looked ready to bolt then seemingly recognising the woman, until the woman raised her arms placatingly and tried to get closer.

* * *

"Wait!" Irisviel called out to me as Maiya slowly got off of her hands and knees. "We're not going to hurt you."

Seriously?

I paused mid-step…they're suppose to be fighting Kirei, but Kirei didn't go to the Einzbern castle. They actually made it into the city this quickly?

I glanced at Maiya once more who seemed a little pale still even as she tried to not show any weakness. Irisviel was driving then. It kind of explains why they got here so quickly. Irisviel was somewhat of a speed demon behind the wheel from what I remember.

"What are you here for?" I couldn't honestly think of a reason. Originally they were just meant to escape the forest and have a small confrontation with Kirei but that didn't happen so I could only assume that they escaped to the city for some reason that involved running away from Caster and Kayneth, who should be dead by now since he lacks a servant.

"Eh?" Irisviel was surprised that I was asking that instead of questioning who they were and it showed on her face. "Uh, we're here to ki- uh," she paused thinking that outright claiming to a child that she was here to kill someone was a little too much. She would never say such a thing to Illyasviel after all. "See, we're here to see Caster's Master and we ran into you. We were hoping you might know where he was since I can't find him with my familiar." Irisviel admitted as a wire construct bird like familiar came down from the sky and landed on her outstretched arm.

"No need. He's dead." And if there was nothing else to talk about, I'd be leaving now. I would be far more comfortable in a situation if Rider was here and since she's not I don't think this talk could end well.

"Ehhh!" She was really surprised by this. Figures. I didn't talk much like a six-year-old now did I?

"Really?" she exclaimed as Maiya slumped against the car.

"All for nothing." Maiya mumbled probably thinking about the drive from hell she had to endure just to get here. A lot more emotion than I was expecting from someone who's supposed to be Kiritsugu's lady on the side.

"Where's Rider then?" she looked around for a bit before her eye caught on something in the distance.

"Hands up!" a male voice came up from behind me. I of course could do no such thing at the moment with Rin on my back and so promptly turned around instead to see a man holding an Uzi pointed at all of us.

"Holy shit!" getting a gun pointed at your face was a lot more terrifying than I imagined it to be and then I remembered that I imagined it only happening once I'd obtained my complete Fullbring and officially became bullet proof with a healthy dose of spirit energy to my skin. Right now, I may as well be a slightly above average Human.

"Eep!" Irisviel clearly didn't know what was going on so she shot her arms up in the air as her familiar took flight again.

Where as Maiya, Maiya pulled out her own Calico and pointed it at the man in front of us. Pretty sure Maiya may or may not be wearing bullet proof clothing right now. "No." That or plot armour. Either way that was pretty hardcore.

The man didn't seem all that perturbed by the circumstance though I was sure I glimpsed some certain level of unsurety in his eyes. It was quickly wiped away however as he squared his shoulders to try and seem more intimidating.

"Um," I paused. Who the fuck was this? "Who the fuck are you?"

His eyebrows rose into his hairline at that. I casually noted that this guy was indeed not Japanese, probably American by his accent alone. Well built, looked kind of intelligent or at least he knew what was going on around here, and packing some firepower.

"You can call me Mr Smith." He said with a totally straight face.

Unfortunately, the Matrix comes out in nineteen-ninety-nine, so no, you cannot be agent Smith good sir. The professional looking attire certainly didn't help.

"Which one of you knows who's been kidnapping children and murdering families for the past week?" he gestured to all of us with his gun.

Please stop pointing that thing at us.

"Oh, I do!" Irisviel said a tad enthusiastically. "But he killed him so it's all good now." Irisviel pointed at me causing me to groan.

I'm not sure whether she's taking this situation seriously. Probably because she's a Homunculus that could wreck this guy a thousand different ways but what did I know?

"Where ar-" he was cut off by the sound of someone's mobile ringing, at least I think it's a mobile phone. Did they have those this far back?

Apparently it was Smith's as he pulled out a bulky looking phone and answered it with the gun still trained on us.

"Yes, this is Smith…" he paused, his arm holding the gun fell to his side before flinging his arms back into the air. "Yesss! Oh, thank you so much. I'll be right there." Pausing again he looked at his watch. "In about ten minutes. Is she hurt?"

I was confused, and my face showed it.

Finally Smith got off the phone and looked at us, then his gun, and then us again. "Uh, so yeah," he smiled awkwardly. "You wouldn't happen to believe me if I said that I was looking for my kid would you?"

"Was the gun necessary to ask that question?" I droned out. What was with Americans and guns, seriously. Irisviel appeared oblivious to my stereotyping and Maiya just kept her gun pointed at the man.

"Probably not." He admitted freely before looking at me with slightly harder eyes. "I'll see you at the end of the war Hunter." And then he just walked off with nothing else to be said.

Hunter?

* * *

Kirei had certainly not expected this.

Berserker was currently on a rampage chasing after him through the city and Kirei had only managed to stave off imminent death by using his natural physical ability to evade said Berserker and use a number of corners and streets to slow down the approaching doom. It wasn't working very well as Berserker was still managing to close the distance every time no matter the physical barrier put before him. It would last long enough however.

The church was fast approaching and if Berserker didn't stop before they crossed the barrier he was sure he could use Gilgamesh's apparent interest in him to defend him.

Only one thousand metres to go. A little over a minute at Kirei's top speed of fifty kilometres per hour. He'd make it.

Berserker chose this time however to leap off of a building he had been running along the top of this time and nearly squash Kirei under his foot if the priest hadn't managed to roll out of the way in time before putting even more effort into his sprint.

Berserker roared and persisted in his chase again only to falter when he felt the presence of another servant nearby leaving Kirei to escape mostly unharmed. Turning his head Berserker saw the one in Gold that had run away the night before, standing there.

"Hoh, the dog knows it's superiors then does it?" Gilgamesh stepped forwards, pulling a sword from his Gate of Babylon into his hand and pointing it toward the creature that had a reminiscent shape of man. "Come mongrel and face your better."

* * *

Rider glanced one more time at the handy work she'd done in killing the Assassins. There were none that she could sense that were left and Kirei had left moments earlier but not before managing to impale Kariya in a number of places that could turn fatal if he removed any of the blades. Unfortunately, she'd been unable to keep a complete eye on him in the battle and hadn't been able to completely deflect all of the weaponry that Assassins Master had sent his way courtesy of said servants that she was trying to kill…

Rider twitched somewhat as she rubbed her legs together. Apparently using monstrous strength together with her Gorgon origins and killing a lot of people made her horny, especially the sight of blood from Assassin as she tore him to pieces one personality at a time. That certainly wouldn't go down well with her Master, though she supposed that as long as she kept in mind that killing people wasn't a thing that was ok to do and it wasn't a regular occurrence like it had been a few moments ago it would be fine.

Back to the matter at hand however Kariya as her master had informed her of his name, wasn't looking too good. Seeing as how his servant wouldn't be back anytime soon however and the fact that there was a currently a truce between her Master and the man kneeling before her she would make sure he lived long enough to thank her Master for his assistance.

Rider picked Kariya up in a bridal carry, being careful not to jostle him too much lest she make the blades impaling him poke something that would cause his immediate death and took off in the direction she could detect her Master through the contract.

Fortunately, it didn't take long to catch up and with him were two other people. The white-haired woman she had seen earlier that day and another unfamiliar woman accompanying her, armed with a gun or two.

"Rider." Her Master acknowledged her seemingly uncaring of the company he was currently in. No matter, it would only take a fraction of a second for her to tear their throats out should she deem it necessary. "Uh, what happened to Kariya Rider?" his eyes shifted to the man barely clinging to life in her arms.

"He was wounded by the priest, Kirei." She went straight to the point. "He will die if not given immediate medical attention."

That much was obvious to those looking at the man. His mana levels were dangerously low and only continued to get lower as Berserker was no doubt somewhere out there looking for Kirei. Unfortunately however it didn't seem Kariya was in the state of mind to call back his servant through a combination of blood loss and exhaustion.

Her master was seemingly insistent that he be healed if possible. Of course the Homunculi that was with Saber previously offered to try and heal Kariya.

"I'll do my best." Irisviel said as she went to work on Kariya, carefully extricating each of the black keys that had penetrated his body and applying a healthy dose of healing spells to quite literally knit the flesh back together. Once she was done, there was little else she could do besides monitor his health.

In the meantime however, "Would you and Rider like to accompany us back to the house we purchased in Miyama?" The albino, whom her master quickly corrected was actually called Irisviel, offered.

It seemed like a heartfelt offer, though Rider knew better than to straight up trust heart felt offers, as did her Master it seemed as he hesitated briefly before Irisviel spoke up again.

"We read the diary you found and were hoping that we could team up and destroy the grail together."

That surprised Rider somewhat. She had half expected that the diary be dismissed as garbage and so had her Master. The mere fact that she believed what was written in the diary meant that she had in fact been informed by the rest of the Einzbern's to the truth of the previous grail war and either didn't know how to fix it or wouldn't risk the curse breaking out if they did try to fix it.

It didn't matter either way really to Rider. If they went with them or not that is. She was more than capable of dealing with all of them in the event that they decided to try and kill them. She was certain of this despite the heavy drain the battle against Assassin had been when she used her eyes to turn the battle in her favour.

"Alright, sure, why not?" was her Master's simple response.

* * *

Saber was sure she was breaking a number of road rules as she sped along the highway on her Yamaha V-Max, cranking the output to full and gliding along the highway at just above three-hundred kilometres per hour. It didn't really matter however as Kiritsugu was fading quickly by the minute and soon enough he would fail to draw breath.

Kiritsugu had told her before getting on the bike with her of the location at which Irisviel should be located and where he would be able to get healed by her. A rather large house in the Miyama portion of Fuyuki, a traditional Japanese home in the sense of architecture, while still maintaining the modern conveniences such as electricity, once it was renovated of course.

Hitting a straight that led into Fuyuki, Saber was forced to slow slightly and try and make out the mental image Kiritsugu had passed to her before falling unconscious.

Soon enough she found it, however there was no Irisviel. She cursed quietly to herself as she made her way inside and lay Kiritsugu down on the timber floor as shallow breaths were all that were coming out of his mouth at this point and his skin was unbearably pale. She almost wished she had Avalon with her so she could give it to her Master and he could heal. It was wishful thinking though, Avalon had been lost approximately three years before her battle at Camlann. The chances of ever coming across it again were slim to none.

Her hands roamed Kiritsugu's pockets searching for something that could be used to communicate with Irisviel and have her hurry to her location. Unfortunately the phone and radio device she found in his pockets were smashed to pieces, likely by being in battle with whatever mage had created the walking abomination.

* * *

Kariya woke for a brief moment in the car to say some final words to me before he croaked. His words, not mine. He talked about how Rin had a sister and that sister was Sakura and how she was given to the Matou's and that their magecraft was an abomination. He even went as far to say that the last time he saw Sakura that she was a mere husk of whom she once was, having been degraded by the worms that now infested her body. Strangely enough, he asked me to rescue Sakura in his place though I'm unsure why.

Maybe he was delusional and saw someone else sitting next to him in the car while he was talking. Maybe he wasn't. The clear news was though, he loved both Rin and Sakura dearly despite the fact that they weren't his. Probably had to do with the massive crush he had on Tokiomi's wife, or widow I guess I should say. Would have asked her to marry him too if it weren't for the fact that he was the heir of the Matou's. And so, in an attempt to rescue poor Sakura from her life in the Matou family Kariya had agreed to participate in the war and win and if he did so Sakura would be set free. He would have adopted her of course and treated her like a princess but it was painfully obvious that that wasn't going to happen. Not now when he could no longer feel Berserker in the contract.

A glimpse of a Golden servant he said. Gilgamesh.

He died shortly after with blood leaking out of his ears and a rather disturbing display of body twitches that made me look away. He had to be thrown out of the car into a large garbage bin, or so Maiya said. Didn't want to risk the fact that the worms in his body could still be alive and sending information back to Zouken nor the fact that they could be caught by the authorities with a corpse. I had to agree.

Arriving at the house that would have been Shirou Emiya's eventually was a tad nostalgic as I remembered all of the near pointless conversational happenings that pertained to the house's kitchen and attached dining room. They were almost always about food as far as I could remember except for the few times they were actually discussing something serious such as the fifth Holy Grail War.

I spied Saber's Yamaha V-Max out the front as we walked through and Rider tensed beside me despite the fact that I could tell she was rather drained from combating all of the Assassins. Fortunately for the both of us however, when we saw Saber she only looked upon me in shock for a mere moment before turning to Irisviel and gesturing to where Kiritsugu lay on the ground with most of his shoulder gouged out and copious amounts of blood covering his trench coat. All of it was his and his chest wasn't rising anymore.

Kiritsugu was dead.

* * *

**Word count: 11,175**

**A much longer chapter than usual. Don't get used to it.**

**On another note, I'm currently stuck part way through the next chapter, wondering whether or not I should do a big lore/exposition dump or just let it trickle through in the story. Take note that if I don't, some interesting facts may never be revealed or may be hard to piece together...or maybe I'm just saying this to get you guys to say yes, I don't know...now I feel kind of bad...fuck it, I'm going to do it even if you hate me for it.**

**That interaction between Smith and the others feels a little half baked but I'm not sure how to improve it exactly so until I can imagine something better it'll have to do.**

_**CH 2: Review**_

**LuluViBritania:**

**True Gilgamesh isn't supposed to be into Artoria (yes this is how it is spelt according to the wiki. Don't like it? Go fight the guys who wrote it) until the Kings banquet however in other materials such as 'Hollow ataraxia' and the meme wagon 'Carnival phantasm' it is implied that Gilgamesh will do things just because he can. In the original Fate/zero he was interested in her because he considered her to be a fool and only remained entertained because while she had the power to enact said wish it would remain forever out of her reach. I took a more forward approach, changed a few things, sue me. It won't matter in the long run.**

_**Ch 5: Reviews**_

**VGBlackwing:**

**Pretty sure this chapter answers that first question. If you're talking about before this chapter however, I mean, it's not impossible that Assassin saw him. **

**Sustaining Rider? Eh, maybe. A lot of reviews have said to keep her but yeah, if she does it has to be a believable reason.**

**wallker:**

**That question only really matters if a servant were to come into conflict with a captain or lieutenant which is highly unlikely. However for the sake of answering; a servant would possess far superior weapon skills as they have trained their entire life to master a weapon where as a shinigami trains to gain more power as denoted by the big bankai craze that it seems all of them have, well that and I don't think we've ever seen them do any other type of training ever. The closest you get in that regard is one of the fillers where the kendo club begs the shinigami who for some reason thought it was a good idea to enrol into school with Ichigo and even then you don't see anything more than a before and after combat pose. In that respect Captains are far superior in terms of physical strength which in theory could put them at approximately the same level combat wise.**

**Raidentensho:**

**Dude, I've got to admit I had no idea what a Kamen Rider was until you asked and so I looked it up and it looks like one man army version of power rangers to me so I've gotta say a big fat solid no to the MC getting Kamen Rider abilities.**

**Reishin Amara:**

**Yeah, I've read about apocrypha, seems pretty interesting, never finished the anime though. Only got up to the second episode. On the other hand I have started playing FGO and I'm up to the third main singularity in okeanos? (not sure if that's what it is called, the one with miss 'hi, I'm also a genderbent' Drake) It's pretty interesting and no, that divergence isn't at the third grail war as there was only ever one war. The first grail war in 2004, played and won by Marisbury Animusphere who then wished for a shitload of cash so he could fund chaldea.**

_**Other reviews:**_

**Thankyou for the praise.**


	7. Interlude 1: Agent Smith

**Interlude 1: Agent Smith**

* * *

"No, sir…you don't understand…" he tried and tried to get through to his superior, but it just wasn't working.

He was met with a sigh through the earpiece he held up to the side of his head. "Look, I do, I really do." The man on the other end sounded almost regretful, as though he'd rather ask literally anyone else to do what he was asking this man to do. "I have kids too. I wouldn't want them to come with me on a business trip of our variety either but there is quite literally no one else available and our hands have been forced by the UN." He sighed once more. "Look, Jake-san…" another sigh. "I won't lie to you and tell you this will be the easiest mission of your career because it probably won't. In fact, it may well be the hardest depending on the circumstances you find yourself in."

"That's why I said I can't go!" Jake said pleadingly over the phone. "I have my little girl to look after, Kuroko!"

This fucking guy was putting him in between a hard place and a rock. He knew it was only a matter of time before he cracked under the pressure and gave in but he didn't want to go down without a fight. Him supervising the Holy Grail War! He was a single father. That was why he'd asked to be relegated to desk work after his wife had passed away.

It was absolutely batshit insane to send him there. He couldn't leave Kuroko with her grandparents either because they were back in the US and his wife had been an orphan so he couldn't exactly leave his daughter with them either since they didn't exist.

"And we need someone there!" The man on the other side began to raise his voice. "We need ID's. Who is dangerous? Who is not? Where are the battles going to take place so we can evacuate civilians after coming up with some convoluted excuse and then everyone in the office just says 'oh it's a gas leak ̴' because they have no fucking imagination!" he paused to take a breath from his ranting. "What if there's a fucking serial killer that you have to take out that's involved? Huh!"

"How the fuck am I supposed to take out a supped-up serial killer Akihiro?" was Jakes reply. He was practically screaming at this point. "Especially if they have a fucking servant?"

"It was an example, and you've received training from the UN Hunter guild. You're practically not human at this point anyway with how much your magic circuits have been modified by them!" Akihiro exclaimed. "God knows why they were so friendly with you…" he mumbled the last part out.

Jake sighed once more. "If they like me so much couldn't we ask one of them to help?" Jake pleaded for a final piece of respite.

"Can't…they're all in the middle east trying to stop some extremist from blowing up his own city. Doesn't help that they have allied Changelings. And the rest are stationed where they've always been." And there was the truth. "Either screwing each other's brains out under threat from the shadier part of the UN to breed some super soldier or stationed along the North Korean border. The rest are too young or untrained."

As untrained as four-year old's can get anyway was the collective thought that went through both of their minds at that moment.

"Look…I just don't want to leave my daughter all by herself if I get killed." Jake sighed slouching against a wall and sliding to the ground.

"I know. If you don't though it's pretty much treason. So, if I were you, I'd start packing my things." Akihiro said one final time before hanging up the phone.

Jake took the phone from beside his head and looked at the contact information displayed on his phone. Akihiro Mitsuyo, or well he supposed it was the other way around since he was living in Japan at the moment. They were really close back in college and now…well, he and Jake still went out for drinks on occasion, but they both almost regretted the jobs they'd signed up for. It had driven them so far apart already, even more so after his wife had passed away as Akihiro and her were friends before he had even met either of them. Didn't help he knew the guy had a thing for his wife at some point but whatever. What was done was done.

Jake's head rose when he heard tiny footsteps echo in the corridor and the sound of a door creaking open.

Great. He'd woken Kuroko up. Not his brightest moment that was for sure.

"Daddy?" Kuroko came around the corner rubbing her eyes cutely at them man while holding kuma-chan the bear. "What was all the shouting?"

Just seeing her like that already put a smile on his face. "Come here…" He motioned for the little girl to come closer and when she did, he pulled her into a hug and held her in his lap, stroking her head gently as he pushed her into his chest. "Haaah." He already felt better.

Kuroko just let go of the stuffed toy she'd been holding and hugger her dad back. He clearly needed her special healing powers and she was going to hug him back until he felt better again…even if she had to miss school. Hehe.

Pulling back, he looked into her light brown eyes. His brown eyes. The rest was her mothers of course, straight black hair, button nose and all.

"We're going to have to go away for a bit…again." Jake mumbled the last part out.

It was unfortunate really. Because of his job his family had never been able to settle down in one place. Sure, working for the UN had its perks, all expenses paid flights, hotels, and business-related purchases as well as a neat pay check that would leave most drooling with how much he was earning in his line of work as a glorified security guard and minder. The downside however was that they were never in one place long enough to make any local friends, for both Kuroko and himself. By that front he wasn't nearly close enough to ask one of the parents of Kuroko's few friends to take care of her for a week or two.

"Agaaaaain!" Kuroko whined hugging Jake a little tighter. "Whhhhy?"

Oof! Her eyes hurt him too much. Too much emotion Kuroko-chan!

"Work called. They gave Daddy a super special job that no one else can do!" He tried to sound excited and it clearly worked if the way Kuroko's eyes were now sparkling was any indication.

"Really!?" She sounded almost too excited. "What is it?"

Ayyyye. "Can't tell you." He said and almost instantly Kuroko deflated. "It's a super-secret mission that you can't tell anyone else about okay?" and then almost in an instant Kuroko did a one-eighty and a smile split her face.

"Is it a super-secret spy mission like the ones in those James Bond movies?" she asked excitedly causing him to frown. He didn't remember letting her see those. "You'll beat up all the bad guys," Kuroko leapt up off his lap and started punching the air. "And get the girl at the end!" her eyes sparkled even more at that causing him to raise an eyebrow.

"What makes you think that?" he was genuinely curious of whether or not she took those movies at face value or not.

"So you can get a girlfriend, duh!" she looked at him like he was terminally stupid or something.

He almost flinched at that. True, Mikoto had been dead for at least four years now, and Kuroko was far too young to remember her well enough that she would know what she even looked like. Maybe it was time he looked to getting a new partner.

"And when I become a super spy, I'll get all the boys!"

"!" He turned to face her with alarmed shock.

No! Kuroko-chan! You were so pure! You're only eight!

"…Ah." He just remembered. He should probably quit his job before Kuroko starts bringing boys over.

Speaking of spies.

"Kuroko," Jake said with a firm voice causing Kuroko to freeze on the spot even as she was still kickboxing with an imaginary opponent and instantly know she was in trouble. "When did you watch those movies?"

They were rated 'M' for a reason!

"Um," Kuroko twisted on the spot uncomfortably. "It was on TV one time when you were out late…" Kuroko began mumbling. "and I stayed up late." Just admitting to it made her uncomfortable as she looked coyly into her dad's eyes.

"Mmm…" Jake was clearly unimpressed which in turn caused Kuroko to whimper a little. "I think someone needs to be punished. You're walking to school today."

…He was too soft. Aaaand he needed to brush up on the mage war.

* * *

**USERNAME: SMITH, JAKE**

**LOGIN: *********

**CODEX ENTRY: HOLY GRAIL WAR (HGW)**

**Due to the formation of the UN's new top-secret agency (International Security and Integrity Service (ISIS)) in only recent years little information is to be had about that of the mage world. What little that can be uncovered however suggests that the HGW has existed for at least the past sixty years at a minimum. The reason for such a large delay between events is that according to *REDACTED* the HGW event takes approximately sixty years to charge in between tournaments at the end of which the winner is allowed to make a wish to a seemingly omnipotent magical device and have it granted.**

**Competitors are designated by the strange tattoo like markings that can be found on one of either of their hands.**

**The approximate volume of mana contained in the Grail at such a time is approximately one trillion units, the approximate equivalent of a ten-megaton explosive if it were to be released all at once. Depending on structure and compression ratios this may differ between point five and three times said value.**

**Unfortunately, all attempts other than *REDACTED*, communicating with the magus community has been met with dead ends and any and all attempts to get close have been shut off indefinitely. As a sufficient or knowledgeable person about the system can't be sent in to disable said system or seize the item in question it has been left as is until an opportunity presents itself much to the disdain of the Japanese government representative.**

* * *

Day zero…

It was a rather small apartment. No smaller than the one he had been living in with his daughter previously however. Overall it could actually be considered a rather moderate size compared to what some people are normally used to…Working for the right people payed well.

"Daaad." Kuroko called out through the house.

He didn't answer. Jake isn't home for little girls who call out across the house.

"Do I have to go to school today?" Kuroko rounded the corner in her new school uniform. Almost entirely green, from the blazer and skirt combined with a white collared hidden underneath Kuroko looked positively unwell. Green was her least favourite colour after all. A small incident when she was ill made sure of that.

"Yep." Jake replied herding the young girl to the front door. "Now put your shoes on and let's go. It's a bit of a walk to the junior school from here and I haven't been able to get a company car this time so we'll have to make do." That and a serial killer had been through Miyama recently. He wasn't exactly going to let her walk to and from school by herself at the moment even if it was with other children. On top of that he'd be able to keep an eye out for any suspicious looking people and either make a report to the police or deal with the nutcase by himself.

He was leaning towards the latter however as the supposed killer had been leaving ritualistic markings in the homes they had invaded. By the lack of prana in the air around the homes he had been able to scout out so far it was obvious that the person in question either lacked the ability to use magic circuits entirely and was going insane because they couldn't use their precious mage-craft or someone whom had already lost their mind had found a book detailing the markings and had decided to try it out for fun. None of the options were good, though one would likely be far easier to deal with than the other.

"Aww." Kuroko just whined that he wouldn't drive her to school…hm.

"If you're going to act like that you can walk to and from school for the rest of your time there." Jake said opening the door and nudging Kuroko out the door.

* * *

"Welp. That leaves Kuroko sorted for the day." Jake mumbled to himself as he saw his daughter walk into a steel pole while she was looking around the school. "…ouch." Jake sympathised before turning on his heel and leaving.

First on the agenda was a quick scope of the city to try and pick up on any mana traces with his fancy little mana detecting device, or at least he would if the thing wasn't the size of a fridge. Instead he would have to rely on that training he received from the Hunter guild and pick up on the mana traces in his mind's eye.

It didn't take long for him to find his first target. He guessed they were somewhere high up on the upper floors of the Fuyuki Hyatt Hotel. Now, he wasn't about to go up there and just waltz in and go straight to the top floor and have some tea with whoever was up there but a little hypnotism never went astray.

As such he walked into the front lobby and approached the desk manager.

"Hi there."

The manager looked up from his box like computer screen looking completely and utterly bored before putting on the brightest smile he could for Jake. It was so fake it was painful.

"Hello!" Desk person replied. "How may I help you?"

"Yeah, about that." Jake applied a judicious amount of prana to his voice just to make sure the technique actually worked. "I was hoping you could tell me who exactly was living on the top floor. You know, just for curiosities sake."

The attendants face broke into a scowl as though resisting for a moment. "…ok." He said pulling out a list of rooms that had been payed for before going straight to the back page.

Jake wondered idly for a moment why on earth he wouldn't just use the computer until he caught a glimpse of the screen and saw the loading symbol. Then the dial-up tone started…hoo boy. Maybe that was why he was so upset.

"Excuse me sir." The man said getting Jake's attention once more. "The top floor correct?" he asked once just to make sure only to get a single nod in return. "Hm, well it appears that one Kayneth Archibald has payed for all of the rooms in the top ten levels…in advance by approximately…twelve months." He said in a tone that sounded like he was thinking, 'wtf?'.

Jake could only whistle in appreciation. Whoever this Archibald guy was he was certainly loaded and so obviously a Master it wasn't even funny. Mages and their superiority complexes, ha.

"Well thanks for that." Jake said starting to turn around before he remembered something. "You can forget all of that just now." Before turning towards the exit and leaving.

The attendant could only shake his head in confusion. "Forget what now?"

* * *

It would appear that today was rather uneventful, well, other than finding two more potential masters. The second was rather obvious as the mission statement said that there was a high probability that the Tohsaka's and Matou's would be competitors as well…make that three potential masters, some creepy church dude had come out of the Tohsaka residence with the trademark tattoos on the back of his hand. Eh.

Now though, Kuroko looked to be positively buzzing with some jucy school gossip.

"…-his boy almost got hit by a truck and then he moved with green fire!" Kuroko said like it was the most amazing thing she had ever seen and to be fair it probably was. Her arms were waving all over the place trying to act out the scene from memory.

…wait.

"He was so fast all of a sudden and he dodged the truck and then pretty much just ran home like something had freaked him out." Kuroko just continued to babble. Useful babble of course however. "I'm going to ask him to teach me magic tomorrow…that's what it was wasn't it dad?" Kuroko looked up at her father and became rather perplexed by the strange look on his face. He had a rather shocked look on his face. Almost as though he knew what was going on. "Dad?"

"…Ah yeah, sure." Jake mumbled as he ushered Kuroko through the door. "And what did this boy look like?"

Now Jake wasn't meaning to be racist, because he totally was being a racist asshole when he said this, but he hoped the kid was foreign. Japanese kids were so hard to tell apart from each other…except for his Kuroko of course who was a halfy.

"Hmm," Kuroko hummed putting a hand to her chin for a second. "He had blonde hair and blue eyes…"

Yas! Jake fist pumped the instant he heard blonde hair and blue eyes. What Asian had those traits? None!

Now all he had to do was convince his daughter to try and be the boy's best friend or something.

"And he's also six. He was moved up two years apparently when he first moved to Japan." Kuroko mentioned offhandedly.

Thaaat did make the approach somewhat more difficult. A smart one. Yeesh. If left to his own devices the kid would without a doubt make it far in the world. That's the way it went with his kind, Hunters. Traits of their power were often exhibited when they were young, often in unexpected ways and according to some studies they always excelled in their preferred area of expertise. Green fire though? Only a few of the top Hunters had been able to manifest such a thing as their powers were barely understood as it was…he'd have to deal with that later, preferably sooner though since a mage might find him particularly interesting.

"So," Jake came out of his reverie. "What do you want for dinner?" he asked Kuroko as she kicked off her shoes at the front door of the apartment.

"Curry!" Kuroko yelled as she crossed the threshold into her bedroom to get dressed for the afternoon activities they always did. Some good old-fashioned exercise.

"Of course you do…" Jake mumbled to himself while wondering why he let his daughter pick dinner again. It was always the same. Spicy food this, spicy food that. As long as it doesn't literally burn my tongue off it's ok!

* * *

**USERNAME: SMITH, JAKE**

**LOGIN: *********

**CODEX ENTRY: HUNTER**

**Hunters are a relatively recent discovery (1989 though suspected to have existed as early as 500 AD and given myths and legends possibly earlier again). Aptly named for their ability to find and kill just about anything they are after. Recent observations however have led to questioning the reason of the name and is pending further deliberation.**

**Not to be confused with the recently discovered Para-Humans (1987) whom may be a possible offshoot of Hunters, Hunters are in a league of their own. More aggressive, more violent, and overall superior physical and mental capabilities on average. If it weren't for these traits it would be nigh impossible to tell them apart from regular Humans if not for the fact that their genome is completely different in a few key aspects. **

**It is highly unstable meaning it is prone to mutation in some, though only two recorded cases have been taken note of in H-001 and H-003 in which healing abilities were amplified after years of conflict. **

**The possible addition of extra or changed genetic sequences as discovered in H-063 and H-072 from birth. Both exhibited enhanced physical capability when compared to the rest of their age group.**

**Alleles of a Hunter are more than likely dominant, expressing only genes that could be considered beneficial in the case of a non-Hunter spouse.**

**Unfortunately, the full extent of the capabilities of Hunters have not been documented for reasons both classified and insufficient understanding. What can be said however is that most appear to have a focus of some kind in which their power can be expressed. Said items are not to be taken unless you wish for an early death.**

**SUBCATEGORY: CHANGELING**

**A Changeling is a Hunter that failed to manifest their Hunter capabilities before they entered puberty and hence can go under vast mutations that change their body figure entirely. It is reasonably understood that the transformation targets their genes almost entirely, transforming someone who would have had a human figure into creatures that are straight out of fantasy, E.G. Giants, Fairies and Ogres to name a few, though said creatures tend to lean more heavily towards human like transformations than the unsightly creatures depicted in myths and legends and have absolutely no relation to said myths and legends.**

**It is reasonably understood and observed that such transformations levy certain abilities that would normally be inaccessible to humans and Hunters though with certain exceptions as certain Hunters have shown the ability to mimic Changeling abilities.**

**Even having been said that there is variety to this subspecies, species such as the Giant tend to have incredibly short life spans, mainly due to heart failure and weakness of the bones in the larger varieties.**

**As such it is generally within a potentials best interests that they obtain their Hunter qualification lest they end up with a less than beneficial trait through the metamorphosis.**

**Even worse, should the subject prove they are not valuable they will either be disposed of or sent to a combat zone in which the event of their death will be nothing worth of note.**

* * *

"You're sure you want to start swimming again?" He thought that she wanted to do athletics.

"Yeah, a few people at school said they come here…" Kuroko trailed off looking at a car that had just pulled up beside the pool entrance. "Hey look!" Kuroko pointed at the blonde boy that got out of the vehicle. "It's the boy that almost got hit by the truck."

That's convenient. The young boy certainly didn't look any worse for wear and was even casually walking up to the front door of the centre without showing that a single thing had gone wrong today. Certainly confident at the least.

What Jake could make out from him with his limited ability to sense mana was that the kid was pretty weak overall in terms of the standard magus but was definitely emitting more prana than would be considered normal for someone of his supposed background. Whomever had driven here, likely one of his parents, he hadn't gotten a good look, they had basically nothing in terms of prana output, much like the majority of humanity. This meant that he too should have almost nothing. Of course there were always exceptions however and unfortunately he couldn't exactly take his daughters word for what she had seen, no matter how much he trusted her. Things like what she saw just don't 'happen'.

"Huh…" he mumbled to himself. He'd have to look into this later. Get a hold of the school records that were stored on the school server and assess potential recruitment. Of course he'd officially get on the Hunters guild bad side but there was little they could do about that.

"Well," he snapped out of his thoughts pushing his daughter forwards. "Let's go get you signed up then."

* * *

Jake stepped out the front door and locked the apartment behind him having cooked and fed dinner to Kuroko and asked her to be in bed by the time he got back which admittedly would likely be very late.

With him he carried the standard pistol firearm, and an Uzi he had requested for an extra little bit of oomph. Both were hidden in the black business suit he wore along with black leather shoes and a knife hidden in the waistband of his trousers. Underneath were the standard defensive measures of a Kevlar vest and nylon chain-link mesh.

Tonight he'd be on the lookout for the serial killer just to make sure he didn't get chosen as a master and to kill him if at all possible.

* * *

Two bodies. Where was the child?

Here he was having noticed police investigating a crime scene relating to the serial killing that had happened recently. He let himself in. The tell-tale signs of ritualistic markings dotted the floor along with two deceased adults and some destroyed furniture. The child wasn't here however. There were signs of a struggle. Ropes left next to a chair, though the two adults were too far away from it and left no trail so it was unlikely that the child had killed either in the apparent quest to summon something. No, the child was also a victim but had escaped? Let go more likely. The rope wasn't damaged.

Additionally, there were traces of mana in the air, a higher concentration than there should have been…Brilliant, the serial killer had summoned a servant then…they also possibly condoned the violence against the child and wished to participate in a game of Cat and Mouse.

Strolling over to the window by the hallway he noticed it was just low enough that a child of the stature he had seen earlier would be able to make it out, if only barely and if the shattered glass was any indication as to what happened it must have been a little violent during the escape.

Jumping out the window and falling two stories was no easy task though a well placed landing prevented any injuries. Of course the child wasn't Jake and he quickly took notice of the small smattering of blood on the ground where shards of glass lay. The child had once again survived a supposed lethal ending.

The trail took off into the alleyway in an attempt to escape…followed by something if the irregular tracks in the pavement were anything to go by. Said thing also possessed tremendous strength and speed if the fissures in the ground were anything to go by. They should have easily caught the child and torn him to pieces yet there was another ritual circle at the end of the alleyway just around the corner that would lead to the street.

The child couldn't have possibly had enough time to write it out and here it was. Did someone prepare this beforehand?

Regardless, the child probably summoned a Servant of their own which then proceeded to rescue them and take them to safety. The trail also ended here unfortunately. Or rather the mana saturation in the air prevented any notable trails form being noticed. If he were a well practiced mage he may have been able to do something but even then he doubted it.

* * *

Day one…

There had been no further actions taken that night according to his findings. Then again it was relatively hard to take note of things when he didn't know half of the things a real Magus would know about magic. A familiar would be nice.

Oh, off goes Kuroko once again, only this time she didn't run head long into the pole. She was becoming rather well acquainted with a few girls in her year whom had been surprisingly insistent that she be their friend from what he had managed to make out from her ramblings yesterday. All good kids from what he could discern so far. Eh, didn't matter at the moment. Today would undoubtedly be rather slow until night time when all of the real action would be taking place.

He'd have to find a few places where it was possible for a fight to break out. Densely populated areas would have to be crossed off of the list, as would anywhere with significant construction as magi probably would prefer not to have to repair too many things to erase the evidence of them ever being there. That left the two obvious locations. The park in Miyama by the bridge, and the shipping docks in Shinto. Considering the location of some of the servants and the church, it was likely that the battle would take place in Miyama since most of the Masters lived in this section of the city.

Never the less, he would have to put camera's in both locations and lay in wait between the two so he could get to a vantage point that would allow him to ascertain any other identities in the war.

So far he had identified only the church man and Tokiomi, whom he had seen the face of both. He knew that there was also Kayneth, but no face to match, the guy would clearly by foreign with a name like that however so there was little reason to panic as he could easily be identified. Then, there was the possible child Master, Kane. He kind of felt sorry for the kid.

That left three others he had yet to identify in some way. One of them was likely to be the elusive killer that had been plaguing Fuyuki recently and the others had hidden themselves rather well, that or he just hadn't come across them yet.

* * *

That night had been enlightening to say the least. A servant had already passed and apparently king Arthur was a girl. Who knew?

Oh, yeah, and there was that guy called Gilgawash or something. He'd have to look that up, but by the reactions he was seeing in everyone it wasn't someone to be trifled with. He only hoped that nothing too catastrophic happened in the war that would cause the city to burn to the ground or something.

"Hey dad!" Kuroko called out to him from the kitchen. "That boy that I told you about yesterday went missing!"

Probably. If the servant the child summoned had even half a brain they wouldn't let him go to school until the war was finished anyway.

"Really?" he tried to sound interested. He really did, but unfortunately there were just too many things on his mind at the moment.

Speaking of servants. Whoever that guy was that summoned using the pentagrams and all that jazz, he was on a killing spree at the moment. His kill count had already tripled compared to previous nights so it was rather clear that his servant supported him whole heartedly. Not a good mix to be sure but there wasn't all that much he could do. At least for the moment he could focus on finding the killer rather than keeping an eye on the war as it seemed that all of the current participants had somewhat sensible heads on their shoulders considering that none of them besides the crazy guy had started killing innocents.

"Yeah…" Kuroko trailed off for a second. "I don't think we should have come to Fuyuki dad."

That got him to raise an eyebrow.

"All of these people are going missing and you have to go out every night when the bad person is outside." Kuroko said somewhat sadly. "What if something happens?"

Ah.

"Look, I'll be fine." Was the simple response, but it didn't seem to calm Kuroko all that much. "Compared to a lot of people out there I'm actually pretty good at taking care of myself so I don't think I'll have to worry about any bad guys anytime soon."

That seemed to calm Kuroko for now at least.

* * *

A knocking sound echoed from the front door.

* * *

Day two…

No, nonononono!

The streets had been quite tonight. Almost too quite. To the point at which he was confused as to whether or not there was some universal break day that all magi had.

Now though?

He was sure someone just loved screwing with his life. Despite the fact that his apartment was assured to have warding barriers to keep out unwanted guests that he was told would repel just about anyone, it did not apparently include insane Masters that kidnap children.

Kuroko was gone.

There were signs of a struggle sure, a knocked over chair, some scattered schoolbooks and a broken glass that had had some water in it. The kicker though was the slight trace of mana he could detect in the air around him. Problem was that it was both too weak to track nor was he skilled enough to do such a thing anyway. The best he could do was actually tell that something had happened.

As such, he was racing through the streets, armed as much as he had been at the time in which he left his apartment, meaning a loaded gun or two and a knife. Not enough to ward off a competent magus but enough to get away to safety. Hopefully enough to rescue his daughter.

"Ha…ha." Jake panted heavily as he came to a stop to catch his breath. "There's got to be something." His voice was panicked as he looked back and forth up the road, the sun having long since set making his vision in the dark his sole inhibitor. "…" his eyes caught something on the road. "Is that blood?"

Taking a closer look, a small trail of driblets led towards a manhole in the centre of a road that looked like it may have been shifted recently with the way the damp footprint on the plate and the road didn't align.

"Oh fuck no…" his mind was in overdrive thinking of the worst possible thing that could have happened already even though he didn't stop to think about not removing the cover or even not climbing down into the dark hold with a cheap flash light. "Please don't be down here."

The descent was slow and chilling, the cold damp environment did wonders to help facilitate the chill that went up his spine when his feet touched the ground. Even more so was the mist that came from his breath to further state just how cold it was right now.

Taking a few steps forwards he noticed something rather odd. His feet were making noises as though the ground were wet beneath his feet. The only problem being of course that it hadn't rained in Fuyuki for over two weeks and even in such an environment the water would have vaporised and fused with the atmosphere by now.

Looking down, the floor was undoubtedly wet, yet the viscous fluid that clung to the soles of his shoes made string like trails and slowly seeped towards the ground. That certainly wasn't normal and definitely wasn't water. Unfortunately, the fluid was either too dark to make out or his flash light wasn't strong enough to make a difference in the dark so he couldn't tell what it was until he knelt down to take a sniff…still nothing, though, now that he was closer he could make out a hint of red at the edge of the pool and congealing clumps of something that looked to be the same colour.

It didn't take long to match the sight he had seen topside with the puddle he found himself standing in. It was blood and there was a lot of it.

Whoever had done this was clearly fucked in the head or so he told himself.

Pulling out a pistol and pointing the flashlight at the ground once more he followed the trail of slowly drying blood upstream to where he believed the origin to be.

Unfortunately, the trail stretched on for a few hundred meters and the path of blood only continued to grow wider and wider as he went making his heart plummet in his chest as he continued. He didn't want to think of the possibilities, he just wanted to find out.

Soon enough he happened upon what he was looking for. The bodies. There were so many bodies.

Disturbingly enough a great many of them had been bolted to the concrete walls with their arms out wide and their legs pinned together to emulate the image of a holy cross. Some were even still breathing though with the current state of their bodies he could only assume that magic had a hand in prolonging their suffering as entrails hung from their wastes and holes gouged in their chests where their still beating hearts could be seen.

Leading from the bodies was a single line of blood that linked to a large ritualistic circle of some kind that glowed a dull violet that could only be made out once he directed the flashlight he held away from the source. He could only imagine what it was for, none of them were nice. A prana battery was at the top of the list though he imagined that the children would have had to have been in a better condition than they were. Apparently not.

Unfortunately he couldn't end their misery here for a risk of being found out and killed by the one who had set this up. He wasn't ready to go against something like that.

A cursory glance along the wall once more, trying to avoid emptying the contents of his stomach by steeling his mind and refusing to feel anything and he saw the pile of corpses that had been dumped off to the side all naked and deformed…some were sporting other injuries of sexual nature.

It was clear by this point that he would have to kill this person in the slowest way possible.

Thankfully for him however he couldn't see Kuroko here and he imagined that she too would have been bolted to a wall since her capture was only recent.

Turning to leave he froze once more at the sudden sight he had missed upon entry. A flower painted from blood and human heads in the centre showing the bud while a string of torsos gave image to the stem, all meticulously placed together so that the stem wouldn't seem too uneven as it thinned towards the top, most if not all were missing all of their extremities while the necks had been split open and had flowers placed within. Roses to be exact.

He left before he did something he would regret. First order of business was to take out the killer and find his daughter in the process. Next was to contact the police and tell them of this place. There was no way this could be hidden from the masses, even by the government. There were simply too many bodies.

* * *

**USERNAME: SMITH, JAKE**

**LOGIN: *********

**CODEX ENTRY: MAGUS**

**Simply said, they are some of the most untrustworthy and abhorrent people in existence with little to no regard to human life whatsoever.**

**Few notable exceptions can be made such as the relation between the UN and *REDACTED*. In such circumstances caution is still a must as it is unknown if said relationships are merely beneficial for short term goals of said magi or a long term friendly coexistence is the goal.**

**The magic wielded by the Magus community far surpasses anything any of the equipped agents of the UN ISIS division are capable of as most agents are capable only of detecting mana at short range in high concentrations and light hypnosis through imposing mana onto their voice. Please take note however that strong willed victims may be capable of resisting for short periods of time.**

* * *

It had taken a while to snap back into somewhat of a semblance of himself, it only to operate properly for the remainder of the night and find his target.

It took hours, many hours before he got a lead. By this point he was almost fooling himself that his daughter was still alive. There was no reasonable way that someone that had done those things could keep those kids alive for long.

His lead though, it was oh so promising.

From what little he could see of them it appeared that the boy that he was to be keeping an eye on was following a little girl through the streets. He kept his distance though, always staying at least an entire block or two away where possible. He wasn't nearly as agile as that purple haired woman that was carrying the boy. He was certain then and there that if they were to fight that woman he would certainly die. There was not question. In fact, he was sure if it weren't for the fact that she probably considered him an insect she would have detected him a while ago.

It was a moment later they hopped down into an alleyway and went into the underground bar that was there. He couldn't follow. He'd be found sure enough, possibly killed too.

A moment or two later though a shout called out from within, the shout sounded as though it came from a grown man, neither of which were the woman or the boy. The serial killer?

A moment later and a rush of children came streaming out from the bar…

"Holy shit." He whispered to himself. "There's at least thirty children there."

He supposed this confirmed it however, the boy was not the one whom was killing all of the families and children. Rather it was whoever they were certainly going to kill in there. The result was obvious.

Unfortunately for him however, even with a keen eye on the children he had seen streaming out of the bar, his daughter's black hair was not unique among the children to emerge. Neither were her chosen pyjamas apparently as he had counted at least three that bore the same clothing.

Well, that didn't matter. He'd simply ask the kid about the children he'd seen streaming out and ask about them. If he failed to get a proper answer, he'd go to the police station and ask there. He could see the glow of flashing red and blue lights after all. It's the only place he could imagine the children going at the moment.

* * *

"No, your daughter is fine." The man on the other end said calmly having received confirmation on a girl's pickup soon. Hanging up his phone he turned back towards the three- well no, four if you counted the unconscious girl on the boys back.

He looked at his gun and then towards the others. Perhaps his gun wasn't as necessary as he'd thought after all. He looked at it once more before putting the weapon away in a friendly manner with a disarming smile. That lady with the calico was starting to freak him out.

"Uh, yeah," he felt pretty sheepish at the moment, "You wouldn't happen to believe me if I said I was looking for my kid, would you?"

"Was the gun necessary to ask that question?" The kid deadpanned at his casual use of a gun.

Considering that you could probably kill me before I had the chance to blink, maybe. "Probably not." He conceded. Never the less, a small warning should suffice. "I'll see you at the end of the war Hunter." He couldn't let potential walking catastrophes like the kid get away.

* * *

"How can I help you?" Asked the officer at the front desk. A cup of coffee was steaming beside her and bags were under her eyes. It must have been a long few days.

"I'm here because I received a call that my daughter had been found." Jake admitted. "She was kidnapped earlier this evening and I've been searching for her ever since. I was so relieved when I was told that you guys had found her." Jake's voice almost broke. He could be emotional when he wanted to. When he wasn't busy being an asshole.

The woman's eyes lit up immediately, a smile coming to her face.

"Yes, certainly, it is one of the few good things to happen recently." She sat straighter in her chair before offering her hand. "I'll need your name and ID of course however to confirm you are who you say you are."

Wordlessly handing his drivers licence over he received a slight look. "…Ah." It must have clicked in her mind. "I know who to get. Just a moment please." She stood to leave.

"Wait." He called back before she could fully leave the confines of her chair. "Before you go I need to tell you something." His tone grew somewhat sombre at that point.

"Yes?"

"I-…I found the bodies."

* * *

**WORD COUNT: 7661**

**I feel this one is a bit of a doozy but what can you do. First interlude. May be more to come.**

**Not as much info to fit as I would have liked as I wasn't sure exactly how to string it together and keep it somewhat coherent, well, that and I'm still finalising a few things like, what other things could I put in without this becoming a massive fuster cluck that I either have at least a little knowledge in or more.**

**Secondly, I think I need a beta. Oh generous and benevolent readers, I implore one of you to volunteer. PM me if you are confident in your editing skills and knowledge of apparent universes that have been displayed so far. Said beta may also be told of plans so that they may tell me if something sounds stupid, that goes for my writing too.**

**Take note of the second CODEX entry as it may be subject to change for a minor detail or two depending on whether or not I realise that either too much was said, or too little. May also be because I realise that I am not properly equipped to use said information and will have to remove it. I will notify you in later chapters if this is the case and change this chapter to reflect such.**

**VGBlackwing: **

**Yeah, bleach saga will be involved before getting to fifth grail war as it actually occurs in 2001, three years before fifth HGW (2004). And for that matter, the thousand year blood war takes part in 2003, some months after the Xcution fiasco...2003 sure is a wonderful year...I wonder**

**AnimeA55Kicker:**

**Ha, no.**

**Loser Stuck In Memory Lane:**

**No to Supernatural. Haven't seen it, nor am I knowledgeable about it. It is an original idea that extends Fullbringer existences, or at least I think it is original in terms of concept. Considering the last thing I read with the word hunter in it was the captions of the doll in the dream calling me good hunter that is all I'm confident in saying...no Bloodborne will not be involved...maybe...I'm not sure. Probs not.**

**Upset? No, hardly. It's understandable to want a character to be able to defend themselves, especially if you're sympathising with said character as you mentioned. However, said character is no Ichigo Kurosaki who can learn to be a fullbringer in the span of a week because of plot devices or match captains within the span of a month. Also, said character is also involved in the grail war as you mentioned and has only known about said power for about two and a half days, three if you count the morning of the day he received said powers. **

**Granted I can have them learn faster than average due to older mentality so once some reprieve is given expect some progress.**

**King Gilgamesh:**

**There is a reason. Admittedly it might not be a very good one, but it is one nonetheless. It is addressed next chapter.**


	8. CH 7: Influx

**Chapter 7: Influx**

* * *

Kirei uncharacteristically slumped down into one of the chairs in the private room beneath the church. Chances were slipping by to take back Rin and reveal that boy's sin of killing her father. Granted it was his first opportunity this night but he was unsure there would be many more. The child looked at him with disappointment despite the fact that they had never met before.

Kirei reached over and pulled out a bottle of wine that Gilgamesh had yet to find from a hidden compartment just behind the lounge and deigned to pour himself some before the golden servant made his way back after he would no doubtedly kill the mad servant.

Speaking of the mad servant. How many black keys was he forced to use to stall that things advance?

Kirei's hands went to his pockets and pulled out the two remaining handles that lay within. Enough to have made it to the church then.

It was only the black keys inherent ability to pin ones shadow to a point that delayed the Berserker even further than searching for him through a maze of alleyways had. Though, at a level of a Servant the black keys could only stall for a handful of seconds at best before the prana within ran out and the blade shattered. Such time was more than enough to gain a few hundred metres between himself and the pursuer at a time.

"Ho," Gilgamesh said as he materialised within the small room before taking a seat on the red velvet lounge he had taken to call his own. "I hadn't thought there would be a place you could hid such a bottle in this room. I was almost certain I had found every one of them."

"I had to save some of them for myself." Kirei responded taking a sip once more from his glass. "Would you like some?" he offered.

A smirk graced Gilgamesh's face in that instant, finding the offer amusing. "No, I have yet to finish the one I was drinking before I was interrupted by the rabid dog outside. It would ruin the flavour to mix two drinks together that were meant to be separate." He admonished Kirei. "Besides, I believe some recompense is in order for allowing me to have some fun so close to your current home even if it was your intent to have me deal with your problem. This will be it."

Gilgamesh pulled out the handle of one of the disposed black keys that Kirei had discarded to slow the Servant. "This toy is quite amusing. You used it to slow down the mad dog then, no?" he asked as he poured the last of the wine into a goblet to drink.

"Yes," Kirei admitted a slight grin coming to his face as he remembered something. Since Rin is here in Fuyuki, her mother would come. Perhaps he could sway Rin by telling her mother whom would then relay the message to her once she had collected her daughter. "It possesses the ability to even harm servants to a minor degree. They'd never be capable of defeating a servant though."

"Yet when you used them, you managed to pin Berserker's shadow to the ground through it and through it stop Berserker for a few seconds." Gilgamesh looked at the item in question with slight curiosity before ultimately throwing it over his shoulder and letting it fall to the ground in a corner of the room.

"So," Gilgamesh began once more. "How was this child you met? Did you kill Rider?" he asked while taking a sip of his own drink, relishing in the somewhat refreshing taste compared to the bottle he had had before this one.

"The child seems rather intelligent for someone of his supposed age. He even freely admitted to Berserker's Master that he had Rider kill Tokiomi…Why didn't you tell me this?" Kirei asked, pausing in his retelling in slight confusion.

"The mere thought that a child could kill my Master relaxed my inhibitions somewhat. If a child could have my Master killed he wasn't much of a Master now was he?" Gilgamesh smirked once more. "Besides, it is always more interesting when one discovers things by themselves."

Kirei could only think of the slight bubble of joy he had felt when he heard that his Master was killed by a child. His only regret about it however was that he was not there to witness such an event. No matter. "I suppose." Kirei agreed. "As for Rider, she was more powerful than initially anticipated. She has the ability to turn others to stone by merely looking at them and even while my Assassins could still move all of their abilities were decreased by an entire rank. Not only that, she was capable of increasing her strength by one rank as well if only temporarily. The only possible being I can think of that is able to turn others to stone with a mere glance is Medusa of Ancient Greece."

"…" Gilgamesh paused. "Medusa?"

That would explain why she smelt of snakes. Now there was simply another reason to kill her. The base form of her legend implied a heavy relation to snakes, even going as far as Medusa transforming into something akin to the reptile.

"Indeed." Kirei affirmed.

"Hm," Gilgamehs pondered for a moment. They would approach him, he was certain of this, eventually anyway. It was likely that all parties remaining would spare one night to recuperate their losses and prepare themselves for the final battle between Saber, Rider and himself. He's give them this time. If they weren't ready by then, well, it would be too late as he didn't have long remaining in the world.

* * *

_Saber looked upon me in surprise even as Rider tensed beside me, ready to spring into action at a moments notice. Thankfully it wasn't necessary as Saber's gaze drifted to Irisviel as she gestured to where Kiritsugu lay on the floor with a significant portion of his shoulder having been gouged out and blood soaking his trench coat. All of it was his and his chest wasn't rising anymore._

_Kiritsugu was dead._

_My eyes narrowed as a noise played off to the side and a heavy sigh was drawn out. The clinking of chains and footsteps echoing on the timber floor, even as everyone else in the room was completely oblivious to the Emiya look alike standing beside them all. His damaged shoulder and arm hung limply by his side even as he moved to stand beside Irisviel whom had kneeled before the corpse and was crying gently._

_I seriously would have thought that the man would have moved on already. Perhaps there was still business that needed to be tended to. Unfulfilled wishes…the grail, Illyasviel…_

_I probably shouldn't be doing this, but as long as neither Irisviel nor Maiya speak of it to anyone it should be fine and well, if this helps them I doubt they'd readily go spreading the information._

"_He's not gone yet you know." I said in a somewhat cautious tone, drawing a slightly incredulous stare from Irisviel and Saber where as Maiya thought this might have been one of those things Magi did. Did Kiritsugu not tell her what was and what was not possible? Probably all for the motto of preparing for the worst I suppose._

"_Yo- you mean you can bring him back?" Irisviel stammered out even as Kiritsugu's eyes widened slightly as well, a glint of hope shimmering beneath._

_I grimaced at that. I should have worded that better. It may have been possible if I knew what I was doing and given that the corpse was relatively fresh it was the time in which such an action would be most likely to succeed._

"_Not like that." I said much to the apparent disappointment of Irisviel. "More like his spirit is still here and I could possibly converse with him if he was willing." That drew more stares than before. The ability to see wraiths and spiritual apparitions wasn't unheard of in the Magus community I believed but still incredibly uncommon. "He's standing right there." I pointed at Kiritsugu as I stared into his eyes._

_Though when Irisviel turned to look, slightly hopeful, there was nothing._

* * *

Rider had yet to leave her Master's side even as he slept on the blanket that had been provided. Truly, it had been just as much a shock to her as it was the others that her Master could see true spirits and not the poor imitations that servants were. Their shifting to spirit form was more of the concept that a high enough mana concentration hadn't been achieved and so their form could not solidify. It was just how it was, though to bind an imitation of ones soul to an ether clump was no small feat either and so there must be some relation between the two, though her Master wasn't awake to answer such questions. Even if he was, she was not sure that he would possess the answers.

Beside her master though, was the still sleeping form of that girl he had held onto from the night before. It was nearing dawn so she should wake soon and would likely be very confused about her current state. Not to mention that whomever was her supposed carer at the moment must be frantically looking for her…well, that didn't really matter, her master would be upset though if Rin were to die since he had put so much effort into keeping her safe so she had also been taking a small measure of effort to protect her from the other people wandering in the house. Though, having had some time to observe the others throughout the house as they quickly tidied the house up she had the feeling that were neither in imminent danger.

Speaking of imminent danger.

"Saber." Rider greeted the other Servant coolly, her eyes trained on the opposing servant as she sat opposite her.

"Rider." Saber returned as she sat opposite her rival Servant.

Rider didn't miss the way that Saber's eyes drifted to her master momentarily before returning back up to her own face. She didn't miss the strange sense of longingness that the other Servant seemed to emit either. It was strange, very strange.

"Do you know my Master?" Rider cut straight to the point. A future version of Saber she had met once with her master just the day before and now here was the past version looking like she had seen something that she wished was real.

Saber hesitated to answer. It was answer enough. She was unsure, and given Rider's small excursion into her Master's memories it was well enough to say that not everything was known about her master nor could it all be confirmed.

Saber shook her head slightly to shake off the thought. "While I'm unsure of the identity of your Master and his relation to my past I would rather speak about the remaining servant in the war that we must defeat if we are to be victorious." Saber spoke calmly. "How goes your recovery from your battle with Assassin?"

Rider also hesitated for a moment, feeling conflicted about revealing a weakness to Saber. She relented however. "Faster than expected. My Master has been increasing in magical aptitude over the duration of the war and has had a significant spike in ability since last night. I suspect it may have to do with straining his circuits and forcefully awakening them…though, such development is not consistent with traditional magi." It was left unsaid about how abnormal that really was. "As such I should be back to full strength within the next hour or so."

Though that begged the answer of whom was going to be Saber's Master now that Kiritsugu had passed. She had a few hours left in the world at most if she did not acquire a new Master soon.

"And who will be your Master Saber?"

"Irisviel has stated that she is unfit to be my Master due to her status as the lesser Grail, however it is within her ability to transfer the contract to another, and so while Maiya possess little to no magical ability what so ever she will be given the contract to allow me to stay in the world for a few more days at least." Saber confirmed whom her Master would be. It wasn't surprising really. Rider's Master was currently incapable of supporting that many Servants and while his current growth implied that in the future it may be possible to support two, perhaps one indefinitely it was still a ways off.

"The other option was giving my contract to the young girl there," Saber motioned to where Rin slept, "as she has quite the magical ability already with a rather decent mana supply."

That option could not be ignored. If Saber were to be given to Maiya her stats would no doubt drop at least one rank, though if Rin were to be the master the stats had a very high chance of remaining as they were…

* * *

"You lost to a dying man?" Sola Ui asked her fiancé for confirmation even as she looked upon him somewhat pitifully. "How?"

Kayneth could only glare at the woman whom he was supposed to marry. First off, he had been utterly infatuated with his summoned servant because of that blasted mole under his eye and now she was belittling him for something that she wasn't even aware of the difficulty of. It was a short miracle that he had been able to wound the man as much as he could with those devices of his and with how much running away he did. Besides, with the wounds he sustained he was likely dead by now.

Unfortunately however, he lacked the ability to take the command seals before his Servant Saber showed. It had taken far less time than he initially thought to take out Caster even as a familiar of his spied Saber being largely troubled by the servant and his own Familiars. Something must have happened to have caused Caster to lose so rapidly. The death of his Master?

That was the most probable outcome.

"Well?" Sola asked once more crossing her arms with a huff and facing Kayneth.

It was hard to be harsh on the woman he loved, but she was becoming more of an irritation than she was a benefit. Her mood had not improved at all since Lancer had died. Rather it had only deteriorated even further.

"His servant intervened before I could finish him." Kayneth admitted. It should have been rather obvious he thought. "There was little that could be done. As much as I pride myself on being the heir of a long line of mages I am not capable of going against a servant. Perhaps Lorelei could given her aptitude in hunting Dead Apostle Ancestors, but even then, they have inherent weaknesses that can be taken advantage of. A Saber Servant certainly does not fit within that category."

Sola seemed suitably miffed at Kayneth's admittance. She was certainly unhappy despite him wanting nothing but her happiness. He was rather taken with her when he first met her, her beauty was quite something. Now though, that belief was beginning to waver. Were all of the Sophia-Ri family members so self-absorbed?

Now, he may have thought this, but he wasn't blind to his own arrogance…some of the time. He would have to admit that last night was one of the few times he had gently pushed his pride off to the side in the face of the impending danger of the magus killer. Life was certainly challenging at the moment.

Perhaps he should just pack up and go home? There were only three servants remaining, the war being relatively short in some terms. He certainly hadn't expected most of the confrontations to end as they had with certain death.

* * *

_The shapeless isle, a place in which stalked one of the most fearsome predators of ancient Greece. It lies beyond the Okeanos known to no one but the three grey witches._

_A fallen Goddess that transformed into the Gorgon lived there._

_Many warriors from far and wide went there. Some to confirm the truth behind the incomprehensible stories and others to claim the head of the beast that lived there while others were dispatched by oracles that told them of falsehoods to rid them with dazzling prophecies. Others, the rare few, didn't say a word yet headed out anyway to slay the beast with no will to claim the glory but to rid the world of disaster._

_None of which still breathe. None had escaped alive to tell the tale, nor the dangers of what lay in wait._

_Nor did their corpses decay into food for the earth, they simply turned to stone. As though they had been made by master stone masons that prided themselves on their art and realism. _

_The owner of the item in question that turned these people to stone, the Cybele, is none other than Medusa. More beautiful than most could claim to be near, and harsher than any had rights to be. Only the strongest of men could hope to resist the enchantment of her eyes, yet none had laid foot on the island and still lived._

_Gazing at the stone figures as she passed them she wondered which would suit her to her tasks that day. One in particular was a large man holding a spear. His tight sinuous muscles could be seen flexing as he prepared to throw his weapon. He seemed suitable enough and so she raised her dagger overhead and pierced it through his body linking it to another nearby._

_Standing before the taught chain she leans over to the basket at her feet and pulls out a heap of laundry._

"_Ah," she takes notice of the small piece of clothing she has retrieved from the basket. "How cute." It was her sisters after all. They had all of the cute clothes. All of the clothes belonging to them in the basket made from silk and other fine linen decorated with laces and ribbons._

_Diligently she went to work washing out the clothes in the river nearby before hanging them on the convenient statues nearby. A sword, a hanger, a spear, a clothesline and so on._

_Soon enough she was finished and swept her gaze over the land before her taking note of one of the statues that was covering some clothes with shade before kicking it down. A quick glance and the other statues in the temple are as they have always been, or would have been had some not been recently removed to make space._

"_It would be nice if no one came today." Of course such luxuries were a rarity._

_With nothing left to do she sits down to rest on a statue of a man trying to flee on his hands and knees. "The weather is nice today. And we had such a load piled up too."_

_A crack echoed throughout the island._

"_S-s-sister!" Medusa cried when a young girl slapped her on the shoulder for she could not reach her face. "A-a-ah!" she could only shudder in fear at the young girl labelled as sister._

"_I can't believe it!" the young looking girl says as she looks over the statues from which clothes are hanging. "What have you done?!"_

"_But…" Medusa looked at the clothes trying to discern the problem that her sister had found with the scenery around them. There as none as far as her eyes could discern. Was this another curse bestowed upon her?_

"_What have I said about using those filthy rusty chains to dry my clothes?" Euryale cried out looking at the dozens of statues around them as their many weapons and bodies themselves became nothing more than glorified drying racks for clothes._

"_Ah…" Medusa realises her folly remembering a conversation that she had had with her sisters many times over. "Not to."_

_The piece of clothing that Euryale was speaking about in particular was her dress that was cast over a chain that had been linked through the head and body of two statues. A fine dress that she had intended to wear to the party that she had been dressing up for despite no longer being invited._

"_Now there are crinkles in my clothes." The sister claims as she looks upon her clothing while it dries in the summer heat. "I'll have to have you rewash this you know." She claims despite never having made Medusa do such a thing. She merely sighed instead, a malicious grin overcoming her face as she walked closer to Medusa. "A tall brute such as yourself wouldn't know how to do such a thing anyway. It'll have to stay as it is."_

"_Sister…" Medusa mumbles. This woman that had turned many men to stone and licked her lips at the thought of fresh blood was scared by the petite form of her younger sister despite being many times stronger than her. She cowered instinctively as her sister neared._

"_Also, you need to clear out some of these statues by the end of the day," She points at some of the various statues that have become somewhat of a hinderance in their positions in the temple. "You're not allowed to use Bellarophon to get rid of them either like last time."_

"_Eh?" Why not? She was making this so much harder than it needed to be. Just one swoop and bam, they're gone._

"_You would simply damage the temple all over again like you did last time," her vision strayed to a crater off to the side where the ground had been incinerated by the Pegasus she had. "We can't all live in the wild like you Medusa! Not without your humungous body!"_

"_Besides, if you're going to petrify someone in the temple at least make sure he's handsome. I don't want to look at all of these unsightly men when I have to come through the temple to keep your stupidity in check. Your heart must be working over time just to keep blood flowing to your head with how high up it is."_

_Medusa felt as though an arrow had pierced her heart._

"_Who was it that gave you those clothes anyway? They look like rags." The girl claims looking upon the larger, curvier woman._

"_Weren't they yours sister?" Medusa claims once more wondering what was exactly wrong with her clothes since they came from her cute sister._

"_Ah, I forgot that we give you our old clothes when we have grown tire of them." The smaller one says tapping herself on the forehead in chastisement._

"_Then-" Medusa is unable to finish as the smaller girl cuts her off with a harsh glare._

"_Why would you wear such things? They barely fit you as it is!" she flails her arms at the taller woman. "They were thrown away for a reason you know." She sighs once more. "I wonder who it is you take after again."_

"_I believe it was you sister…" Medusa mumbles off to the side trying to prevent her sister from hearing such a thing._

"…_I can hear you Medusa!" she says making Medusa squeal uncomfortably in her spot. "Such harsh language towards your elder sister demands punishment. Payment can be made with your body!" she licks her lips at the thought. _

"_Nooooo!" Medusa ran away without a second thought to falling prey to her sisters antics._

* * *

"Urg…" I moan as I wake up. What weird dream. Medusa doing the laundry?

I glanced to my left where I could feel the command seal telling me Medusa was. Beside me and sitting still all the while. To my other side is Rin Tohsaka whom has seemingly awakened a while ago and is looking down at me cautiously.

I contemplated for a moment through my bleary vision going to comfort Tohsaka yet instead I turned to Medusa. I wondered what kind of reaction I could get out of Medusa if I mentioned such a conversation as the one I had witnessed to her. A cute one probably…

"Hey Rin." I said as I sat up. Maybe I should leave the teasing to later. Besides, teasing Rin would have to be left until she was of legal age, or you know, whenever she was no longer naïve. "How are you?"

"…" Rin was silent for the most part but her eyes snapped up to meet mine from the place she had found on the floor that must have been pretty interesting. "Were…do you know about magic Kane-san?"

That question sounded a bit silly. "Weeell, I did summon Rider. So I…" I looked at Rin in the eyes properly. Right, this could be about last night. I imagine it would still be rather fresh on her mind. "Yes." Was the simplest answer I could return. I hoped to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible.

"My sister was given to the people that did that thing to uncle Kariya." Her tone was distant. It wouldn't have done well to expect anything else. "Do-…do you think that she's ok?" she looked at me despite knowing that I was probably one of the worst people to ask that question. I had to give it to her straight though.

"No, probably not." I trailed off causing Rin to freeze up and shudder for a moment as tears began leaking out of her eyes. "Hey, hey." I attempted to sound as soothing as possible. "Everything is going to be fine." Not really, but I hoped that everything would be. "Maybe after everything is finished with the war we can go get your sister back." Rider would certainly help. The only problem remaining would be the worms in Sakura's body. Fullbring could certainly help in that aspect as the worm containing Zouken's soul is hidden within Sakura's heart, the rest are slowly fusing to her nervous system meaning that permanent damage had likely been done already, but the sooner help came the better.

"I hate him." The words of malice came from her mouth.

"Who are you talking about?" I was pretty sure it was her father, but I had to make sure.

"I hate my father!" Rin screamed at me, tears now streaming from her eyes. She really loved her sister. "He sent Sakura to that mean person and now she's hurting." Her emotions were pouring out of her voice and Rider twitched nearby at the casual mention of Rin's sister, her hands curling up slightly before releasing. Let it not be said that she was potentially also being eaten from the inside out.

"…" Rin went silent as I held her close for comfort. Her mother would probably do better in this situation but she wasn't here so I did my best. Rin herself had huddled into a ball and refused to talk anymore for the mean time though I could have sworn I heard her mutter something along the lines of killing her father for it…Good thing the guy was already dead otherwise he'd have to suffer his daughter's wrath.

"Rin," I whispered to her, "We have to get up and send you home." It wasn't safe for her to stay any longer than she had been. It was day time now from what I could tell from the light leaking inside through the broken walls.

"Kane." It was then Rider decided to speak up "Can I speak to you for a moment?"

The implied part there was 'alone'. Obviously, Rider wanted to talk about something involving Rin and I couldn't help but think that it was a bad idea.

"Yeah sure, just a second." I glanced back at Rin for a moment hugging her tight for a moment before standing up and following Rider out the door to the room and around the corner. She didn't stop for a moment as it seemed she intended on not being overheard by Rin.

"Kane," Rider stopped and turned around. "The other Servant, Saber, is wondering if it would be possible to make Rin her Master like you are mine. Her mana is quite high for her age and would prevent her status from lowering."

Like that, she had lost me. There was no way a girl like Rin, a little girl, should be fighting in the Grail War.

"Is she out of her mind?" Was my question back to Rider who in turn had to hide a slight smirk that threatened to show in her lips.

"Oh, and what about you Kane." Rider asked causing me to freeze up. "Aren't you too young to participate as well." Rider asked. She was strangely insistent that Rin participates.

"That is completely different. I summoned you and was pulled into the conflict. I had no choice about it." Sure, I made it this far, but I didn't make it this far because I was some random kid pulled off the street…ok I was a random, but that didn't mean I was a kid. Unfortunately, whether I liked it or not others would consider me to be a kid until such a time until I had either a, grown up, or b, proved that I was mentally competent enough. The latter of which was highly unlikely as point a was seemingly more relevant than point b.

"Rin is a little girl who can go home and has a certain chance for avoiding the rest of the conflict. We can't just tell her to risk her life because some servant is close to dying." I was really driven to make this point.

"…" Rider paused for a moment before nodding her head. "It was more the other woman's idea anyway. Maiya-san I believe?"

Huh?

"As Irisviel, the homunculus cannot become a Master due to her being the lesser grail, it falls to the nearest two capable people to pick up the position of Master. Either Maiya or Rin. Maiya was pushing for Rin due to her inherent Magus lineage." Rider explained.

Well that made sense for the most part but I still had to refuse. I was sure that Saber for the most part would have been rather reluctant as well to take on such a young child as her master.

"Saber was hesitant to involve Rin and decided to leave it to a vote as to whether or not we should ask her. Irisviel said no while Maiya voted yes."

It seemed pretty clear to me then. We wouldn't be asking Rin but it would be rather difficult to win without her as Rider was at her most powerful when she was using her eyes and monstrous strength skill. Saber possessed the necessary mana to not be petrified but she would be ranked down if she was caught within Rider's vision. It wouldn't necessarily be difficult if Gilgamesh didn't enter a contract with Kirei. That was part of the reason I wanted him to be one of the ones to die first, just so that contract didn't have a chance to be renewed. A bit late now though.

"Was that all Rider?" I asked. At this point it wouldn't do to be left out of the loop.

"Your prana production has increased yet again. Far more than last time however." Riders lips twisted somewhat, clearly unsure what to make of the phenomenon. It was unheard of for someone's prana production to increase so greatly in such a short period of time. Yes it would grow slightly with age provided that the magic circuits were maintained and used regularly but not to the extent that it had done so within her Master.

"Are you Human?" was the next logical step in her thought process.

"Fuck if I know." Was my simple response with a shrug of my shoulders. I was just happy my prana output had increased once more. Hopefully my reserves had too.

Rider was a little off put by my language if the sudden change to her stoic appearance was anything to go by.

I was certain that Fullbringers were Human, though the more I thought about it the more it didn't make sense anymore. I mean, Vampires looked human, just look at…what was her name, that blonde, the one with the white polo and purple dress…Altrouge? No, that's the one with the pet dog of doom. Well, whatever, point was, there wasn't a clear way to tell until I exhibited some unforeseen habits that weren't classified as 'human'.

"…" That seemed to be the end of the conversation from Riders stand point as she had nothing left to say.

"Sooo," I began awkwardly. "You're terrified of your sisters because you hung out the washing incorrectly?"

Rider immediately stiffened, a slight flush making its way to her cheeks.

"Ah, well…" she trailed off, unsure how to begin.

"And they made you pay with your body?" I was slightly sceptical with the wording of that particular sentence. The way the smaller girl had worded it was odd, though the way she bore her teeth ready to bite reminded me vaguely of that time that Medusa was supposed to almost drink Ayako dry on Shinji's command. Was blood an aphrodisiac or something to the gorgon sisters? Or did it simply taste that good to them?

"Ah-ah-ahhhhh…" Rider made a slight squeaking noise before walking off rather quickly. It seemed the story was a tad embarrassing.

"Hmm." I hummed to myself in thought. I should try to pick back up on that later. For now I should go back to check up on Rin.

* * *

Irisviel sat inside the shed out the back of the property drawing in the summoning circle that would normally be drawn to summon servants. In this case however, it was merely to be used to help stabilise her condition as her sensory abilities were rapidly deteriorating with the influx of servant souls. As it was she could barely hold onto the piece of chalk in her hand as she sketched out the circle.

"Do you need help Irisviel?" Saber asked from the side where both she and Maiya sat. It wasn't like they had much to do at the moment as it was and none of them could communicate with Kiritsugu's spirit until the younger Master had awoken.

Irisviel merely wiped her brow of the light sheen of sweat she had worked up and went back to drawing. "No, I'm fine Saber." Irisviel said even as her arms shook from the effort of having to sustain her movements. "Would Saber know how to draw the summoning circle if I were to say yes?"

Saber frowned in response. She hadn't thought of that. "No. I am unsure of how to operate magic and my class does not allow me to easily understand it."

Maiya rose a brow before getting up and walking out the door of the shed, likely to go dig up the case of munitions that had been stored here before the start of the war. She hardly understood magic as it was anyway. She had enough to get by and kill people, that was all she needed.

"Would you like me to tell you some of the basics then Saber?" Irisviel said as the rubbed out a section and went over it again, though with slightly more focus this time.

Saber perked up at that. "Yes, of course Irisviel. It should do well to understand anything that might happen because of magic in the following battle tomorrow."

Irisviel smiled in response before frowning and cutely sticking her tongue out as she focused on a particular point in the magic circle, a triangle she had been trying to draw the point for correctly.

Saber seemed to notice this as she leant forwards to pull Irisviel back for a moment. "Perhaps you should rest for a moment Irisviel to regain some strength before you continue." She felt no resistance when she did pull though Irisviel's squirming spoke otherwise. Her strength had waned greatly since last night when two servants passed. It was as though Saber was holding onto nothing despite the fact that she could clearly see the woman she was supporting.

Irisviel sighed and sat back on a box behind her, relenting completely. "I suppose." She dusted herself off slightly in response. "Now, what would you like to know about magic Saber?"

Saber pondered on this for a moment before coming up with something. "Well, how does magic work exactly?"

"That is a rather difficult question, but the simplest answer I could give you is that the Human race gives it meaning through Alaya." Irisviel began, though the confusion was clear as day on Saber's face.

"The collective unconscious will of Humanity?" Saber asked for clarification.

"Yes. Normally, Mana and Prana are just a form of energy that can be manipulated. They have no meaning other than that. In that instance mana can't do anything but exist as mana. So, when humans discovered this substance thousands of years ago it was thought to be a fuel source that could potentially be used for anything. To some extent they were correct." Irisviel conceded. "However, magic only behaved the way they wanted it to when the prana in their circuits was used. The prana required a compiler to translate the knowledge of the user into a language the universe could understand and perform the phenomena, that compiler is the magic circuits."

Saber was getting thoroughly confused at this point. Mana could be used for everything? Compiler? What was that?

"It was at some point after that that the divine language was invented and so were the divine runes. They're basically constructs that can interact with the universe directly without the need of a translating system. Through this convenient practice you didn't actually need magic circuits to perform magic though the language was both highly complex and hard to understand…I think, and so few actually managed to learn it. Unfortunately, it was lost in the age of gods, well before the modern magi came about and hasn't been rediscovered."

"I see," Saber said, a frown on her face. She didn't, not really. She was getting there though.

"The only reason we can begin to determine that that is what the divine language was like is because of the way in which our own magic interacts with the world around us. Since Alaya has grown strong with humans populating most of the planet now it is also capable of filling the place in which the divine language once stood. Because humans understand the words written in magic circles, so does Alaya, and because Alaya understands this, magic can be used." Irisviel smiled at Saber, though she frowned slightly when Saber appeared to be lost in thought.

"Don't think too hard about it Saber." Irisviel tried to comfort the servant.

"So Alaya is a translator for magic between a human and the universe as well as Humanities guardian from extinction?" Saber asked Irisviel with a sightly perplexed look about her face.

Irisviel's eyes widened slightly at the simplification, a smile gracing her lips. "Yes! Exactly!" Irisviel cheered. This was actually a little fun, teaching that is. "But so are magic circuits…It's kind of like maths but with words…most of the time."

"Then if someone were seeking to be immortal, why could they not just write the word 'immortal' and be done with it?" Saber asked a question that proceeded to baffle Irisviel slightly.

"Um…well, I suppose it has to do with the definition of immortal. What does immortal mean?"

"That you don't die." Saber answered not quite sure where this conversation was going.

"Why not?" Irisviel countered. "Why won't you die?"

"…Because you're immort-…" Saber trailed off slightly finding the slight conundrum in the definition. "So the word isn't allowed to have a vague meaning?"

"Mm," Irisviel nodded back. "Writing the word indestructible would yield good results but with the vague definition it would be both very expensive and weaker than something that said 'this is very strong' and explained why, which wouldn't take as much mana and could potentially be even stronger than the item that you placed the definition of indestructible on."

Her eyes drifted back to the magic circle and she tested her arms once more having gathered some feeling back into them and felt confident enough to finish the small section she had been working on in order to complete the work.

Shuffling back onto her hands and knees Irisviel got to work once more just as a knock sounded at the door to the shed.

Saber was the first to react as she suddenly felt a presence intruding on her senses. "Rider." She greeted the intruder.

"Saber." Rider greeted still trying to fight down the slight tinge of a blush on her cheeks as she walked in the door. "My Master has voted against bringing the girl, Rin, into the grail war and thinks we should send her home as soon as possible."

Saber smiled gently at that. It appeared that there would be no more children suffering in this war. She tried not to think about all of the children in the forest that were killed by Caster before she could save them. Unfortunately, there was that other child, Kane…he reminded her of him but there was no way they could be the same person. It was impossible.

"I see," Irisviel sighed slightly though happy that another young child wouldn't have to be involved in the battle. "Saber, could you go get Maiya please so we can transfer the contract from Kiritsugu's arm to hers."

"Of course Irisviel." Saber acquiesced and stood to leave taking not of the woman she was passing. Her identity had been discovered the night before when Irisviel's familiar was searching the city for a potential Master of Caster and had caught her petrifying the Assassin servants. Medusa. A being that was technically closer to that of a divine spirit than she was a heroic spirit. Said to be a monster and yet she had managed to not only keep a child master alive throughout the war but become somewhat approachable if you ignored her stoic demeanour. Overall, Saber concluded that she wasn't that bad. No where as bad as her legends depicted her at least.

* * *

Rin was upset to say the least, though I dragged her around with me throughout the house as we explored, not wanting her to waste away in the room we were in until a relative of hers came to pick her up. Needless to say her mood considerably lessened when I started using my abilities so casually when exploring the house. Jumping really high to check the ceiling cavity, speeding to the other side of the room when I was bored looking over the other.

In the end Rin was content enough to try and figure out how my ability worked exactly.

Soon enough however we made our way outside and I took it upon myself to try and at least learn how to fly and so I probably did something really stupid in hindsight.

"What are you doing?" Rin shouted up at me in slight confusion as Saber passed by heading over to where Maiya was with a shovel, heaving loads of dirt out of the ground.

Saber though was quick to notice whom Rin was talking to and looked slightly alarmed when I went to jump off of the roof. Now, you might be asking, 'I thought you were afraid of heights?', but the truth of the matter was that as long as I was confident I could stick the landing I didn't have much of a problem with it. I was pretty sure I could stick a landing from two metres up.

And so Rin screamed, Saber dove and Rider flashed out of the shed to wonder what was happening exactly before she herself sped forwards in an attempt to catch me.

In the end I ended up landing on both Saber's and Rider's bodies rather gently, said gentleness did have to do with the fact that I managed to somehow grab a handful of Rider's breast in the process but I wasn't complaining. First boob grab!

"What are you doing?" I asked the both of them as we stood up. "I was trying to see if my power would let me fly."

"Huh!?" was the collective response. They all looked at me as though asking, 'are you an idiot?'.

"Are you an idiot?" Rin asks. Her apparent concern spoke otherwise, face contorting into a shape that said 'I'm unsure whether or not I should be upset or angry'.

I could only look at her in slight disappointment. Rin, you were supposed to be on my side. Though, I supposed that was the way of the tsundere. Acting like you don't really care, maybe even being slightly mean, though deep down inside you're all fluffy and warm.

"Besides, even if I couldn't I was certain I could land without any injuries. You worry too much." I turned to jump back onto the roof to try again before Rider caught the back of my shirt.

"Hrk!" My neck caught on the collar.

"Are you sure Kane?" Rider asked me calmly getting me to nod before she released me though with a slightly shaky hand and let me bound back up onto the roof once more before turning around. Saber looked slightly disappointed off to the side and Rin was trying to understand what exactly it I was trying to accomplish.

Rider was there with her arms out prepared to catch me if anything went wrong and it was slightly embarrassing. I mean, sure, I'd get a face full of her boobs if I stuck the landing correctly, but I also really wanted to learn how to fly so she wouldn't be holding onto me when she did jump off a roof herself next. It was pretty weird hanging to the side of a building with just her feet. I thought she was a snake, not spider woman…Though snakes did coil around trees to traverse them…no, that still didn't make any sense. It was just one of those things I guess.

Onto other matters however, I moved off to the side a bit and Rider followed, body shaking, cheeks slightly flushed, her arms out still…What was wrong with her?

* * *

"_What do you think sister?" Euryale said to Stheno as they looked upon their taller sister._

"_I think punishment is in order." Stheno replied as Euryale nodded and moved to one of the nearby statues before nodding to herself slightly._

"_Hup." She said as her beautifully thin arms pulled her up onto the shoulders of the man that had been kneeling enough to grant her easy footholds. "Stay there Medusa. Your size makes it hard to punish you you know." Euryale said as she now stood on the shoulders of the man, arms out ready to capture and eyes trained on her younger sister._

"_Ah, oh, wait sister!" Medusa cried as she didn't know what to do. If she moved her sister might injure herself, if she didn't she would be captured. Her sisters weren't strong, they were idols of humanity and had no means to defend themselves and as a result they were quite weak. Medusa however as a result of not pertaining to 'perfect immortal' was blessed with great strength and ability._

"_Stay __̴" Euryale cooed as Stheno went to hold her youngest sister in place as best she could. Right then Euryale leapt from the shoulders from the statue and glided into her sister's embrace for she was Euryale, the far flier and would glide to the ground anyway._

"_Aieee!" Medusa cried as Euryale wrapped her arms around Medusa's neck._

"_It's time for you to pay with your body sister." Euryale said in a sensual tone as she licked her lips and bared her fangs. A moment later and her teeth had sunk into the youngest sister's flesh and she was sipping lightly at the blood even as a flush permeated her cheeks. "Ah ̴" she moaned slightly, a slight dusting of pink gracing her cheeks. "Your blood is so good sister. Share some with Stheno…" she trailed off as her teeth once again sunk into the flesh of Medusa's neck._

"_Noooo!" Medusa wailed as she sunk to her knees providing ample room for Stheno to come in and take advantage by biting the other side of her sister's neck._

* * *

Ah…

That was a weird vision.

Wait…I'm not your sister! Why are you reacting like that!?

I sighed looking off to the side where Rin was giving Rider a peculiar look. Clearly she was thinking the same as I was. Why is Rider acting this way? Of course, I had a basic answer while Rin was left to ponder in that cute little head of hers.

I shrugged my shoulders finally, ignoring the fact that Rider was treating me as though I were a female sibling that had the habit of drinking her blood.

Hopping off the roof I concentrated and let the green sparks fly from my feet as my descent was noticeably slowed while Saber herself looked upon me strangely before shaking her head and going off towards Maiya whom had paused her digging with a raised eyebrow at the spectacle we were making a moment ago.

Rider caught me once more though she was reluctant to let go again, her face still slightly flushed.

"Ah, Rider?" I questioned her with a look.

Even Rin whom had been gaping slightly at my feat was slightly off put by Riders attitude.

"…Hm?" Rider snapped out of her daze for a moment. "Oh! Right." She came too and put me back down as I cautiously turned around once more to jump up onto the roof. This was getting weird, but I had to focus.

The grip between my feet and the air wasn't the soul of the air I was pushing on, though I certainly could manipulate it as such. The weird part being that there was actually no physical way a power such as air-walking could exist under normal circumstances. If I did solidify a platform of air under my feet I would have to solidify the entire column under my feet until it reached the ground at which point I may as well be walking on invisible stilts. If I only solidified the section directly under my feet and not all the way to the ground my fall would be slowed, nothing else. To achieve a better result I would have to have the power to control gravity.

Looking at my feet I took note of how the tiles seemed to bend under my feet when applying bringer light…Was I bending space?

I swung my foot back and forth a few times noting the way that not only would the tile seem to flex underfoot but the light around my foot also seemed to distort slightly followed by the green spark. Holy shit, bringer light could bend space…maybe, it could be something else. How much though was questionable. If we went by the example that was displayed in the anime or manga the furthest you could really go was to utilise it as an energy projectile as Ginjou had in the first confrontation against Tsukishima.

Hmm, no, probably wasn't bending space then unless dimensional energy was a thing but Zelretch had to summon an ether cannon from another reality to defeat Brunestud so probably not. A possible side effect of altering the local air density then causing the refractory properties to change. Again, I wasn't sure, but I had to come up with something that might let me gain a further understanding of my powers.

The ghost of Kiritsugu had taken this time to wander onto the roof alongside me to see what I was trying to do.

Well, I wasn't going to get anywhere by thinking about it too hard. Ichigo could do this within like two days of learning Fullbring and I've already had three days worth of screwing around with the stuff to help figure out what it can and can't do. This list of cannot was actually pretty short. By that I mean, things that you'd really want like telekinesis or something. Totally not possible unless prior contact was made and a portion of spirit energy was left behind. At best you could probably summon it from a distance.

Anyway, stepping off the building now.

The same effect was present as before though slightly more traction could be felt as I focused on the feeling that the air beneath my feet was solid. Unfortunately, I once again landed in Rider's outstretched arms before managing to come to a standstill, but I was certainly getting closer every time. If I were to be generous I might be able to get this done by lunch time which is a few hours away judging from the position of the sun in the sky. At the very least I reckoned I could get it done by nightfall.

"Hey," Rin called out to me as she walked over. "How are you doing that?"

Hm, I could tell her but I'd have to swear her to secrecy or something. If Magi actually knew what Fullbring did I'd be on a dissection table faster than I could blink. Certainly not a pleasant thought.

Screw it. If all went well I could very well get a potential long term ally out of this. Not only would it accredit me within the moonlit world as Rin's associate but I could potentially perform just about any magical activity I wished within her territory as long as I was discreet about it and not have to worry about any governing authorities.

Again, the downside was less than pleasant.

"I call it Fullbring, my particular ability that is. It's not exactly unique but I wouldn't call it common either. More like a very rare ability." I began, enrapturing Rin in mere moments. Rider too listened in genuinely curious as to how my powers worked.

"This green stuff is called Bringer Light and is the basis of Fullbring. The description I can best come up with is that it allows to a somewhat limited extent, the manipulation of souls." Rider's Jaw could be heard opening. Rin though…I don't think she knew quite enough yet to understand how profound my claim was among the moonlit world. It would probably be compared to the third magic or something of the like.

"For instance, Fullbring operates on the basis that everything has a soul." I pointed at the ground. "The dirt beneath my feet has a soul," the necklace around her neck with a cross attached, "The necklace you have has a soul," I waved my arms through the air, "The very air around us has a soul."

"It is a power that a person is born with…It may also be hereditary, I'm not sure about that." I tapped my chin in thought for a moment. Was it hereditary? If so the potential for my parents to have been potential Fullbringers was there though I doubt they would have died as easily as they did when Uryuu killed them if that was the case. Just another mystery I suppose.

"Anyway," I moved on, "Since Fullbring acknowledges the concept of a soul existing everywhere then I can interact with it. For instance, yesterday I learnt how to walk on water." Rin was positively moved by my explanation and had stars in her eyes. I could see some slight disappointment when I mentioned that a person had to be born with the power, though yet again, not confirmed. While Ginjou may have mentioned that powers could be transferred between hosts to some degree, he didn't say a regular human couldn't.

On second thought, that was probably a bad idea. Hollow spirit energy normally acted like an acid to regular Humans and even Shinigami so putting a power like a Fullbring into someone whom was not born with said power may cause them to implode.

With that said and done I hopped back onto the roof where Kiritsugu was somewhat gobsmacked about hearing the potential of my ability. Too bad he wouldn't remember when he passed on to the afterlife. Sucks to be him.

* * *

"Maiya." Saber greeted the woman shovelling away at the ground. "Both Irisviel and Kane have agreed it would be best to send the young girl, Rin, home."

Maiya merely grunted in response. True, she wasn't cut out for this kind of thing, but really, who was cut out to fight against living legends. Not many. The number of people in the world that could probably fight them one on one and were actually human could probably be counted on one hand, two if you were being generous.

"It's a bad idea." She stated pushing her shovel into the dirt once more and placing her heel on the back end to press it in further. "You would last barely a day with me." A shove of her heel and a clang could be heard. "Thought it would be deeper…" she muttered as she scooped out a load of dirt.

Wiping sweat from her brow Maiya was only clothed in her long pants and a singlet that she had worn underneath her original clothing allowing the air to cool her as she worked tirelessly.

"Besides, who said those two actually had to be close to the fighting?" Maiya questioned as she relieved the hole of more dirt. "I will not be able to perform in tomorrows fight unless the other remaining Master comes to us. Humans can't fight legends." That much she'd at least confirmed when she saw Saber fighting off Lancer the first night. And then Berserker to Archer.

Saber could only look off to the side slightly. Maiya spoke the truth. It was unlikely the two children would actually come anywhere near the conflict and since Maiya wouldn't be able to readily interact with the fight she was better off defending the children if it came down to it. That way Saber could operate at full capacity and the two children would be safe from harm.

Even so, Saber couldn't allow it. Unless something came up that prevented Rin from going home, she would not be the Master.

"I understand your reasoning, however Rin is only a child." Saber defended herself just as the rest of the munitions case was uncovered. Moving over Saber grabbed one handle as Maiya gripped the other and they pulled it clear of the metre deep hole.

* * *

"Rin-chan!" Irisviel called out as she walked over to us before being a little perplexed at the sight of me jumping off the roof over and over again though ever so slowly floating to the ground each time. Rider still insisted she catch me for some reason though.

"Yes," Rin turned, slightly nervous, her blue eyes showing her apprehension as she pulled her red coat tighter.

Irisviel was slightly unsure how to approach. Illya had certainly never behaved this way with her and Kane was a boy so it was different?

"I was wondering if you remembered the phone number of the home you are supposed to be staying at so we can have your carer pick you up." Irisviel held out her own block like mobile phone that Kiritsugu had given her in order to contact her in case of an emergency while pulling back a strand of white hair behind her ear.

Rin peered curiously at the device Irisviel held out to her as though it were a gift from an alien. It probably was in her eyes. "…I don't remember." Were the words that came from her mouth. "I've only been staying with the Zenjou's for a few days so I haven't memorised the number yet. I only remember my home phone number."

"The Zenjou's?" I asked interrupting their conversation. "Do you at least remember where they live then?" as I walked over. "If you do we can find a phone book and look up the number."

"Eh," Irisviel seemed somewhat astounded. "You know how to use this Kane-kun?" Irisviel waved the hideous piece of technology in my face as I tried to bat it away. Damn thing wasn't my smart phone. It was both a quarter the size and had a trillion times the processing power…though the battery life was only two days.

"Yeah, it's pretty easy." I was more stunned she knew that you had to put numbers into the thing. She probably didn't know how though. Damn mages and anti tech habits.

"Um, I don't remember that either, but I do remember the station we get off at when I use the train to get to school at the moment." She seemed somewhat hopeful. Worst came to worst, one of us could simply walk her home. In fact, that might be the safest option. No idea what Kirei is planning.

I nodded. "That should work. How many Zenjou's can there be in that city?" I asked rhetorically. The answer was not many. "When do we leave?"

"Leave?" was Irisviel's response.

"Unless you have a phone book lying around here we'll have to see if we can go get one from a news agent or something." Of course, by that point we could just drive Rin to the train station. "Or even better yet, since we don't have a phone book we could just take Rin home ourselves." I turned to Rin. "How long did it take you by train to get to Fuyuki Rin?" It was only then I realised how overly familiar I was being with Rin's name by leaving out the suffix…Well, she hadn't said anything yet so I'll just go with it.

Rin looked off to the side in thought for a moment before looking slightly unsure about herself. "Fifteen minutes?" it sounded more like a question than an answer…

Maybe it was just better to call her mother after all.

* * *

"Yes Aoi-san." Kirei spoke to Tokiomi's wife, Rin's mother over a phone. "I'll have an eye out for Rin. I'm sure she is unharmed as the murderer has been apprehended and Rin was not found there, though I did detect her Mana early this morning, so I am certain she is still alive."

"…Thankyou Kirei-san." Aoi sounded positively wary. She had never trusted the man her husband had decided to take on as an apprentice, even less so once her daughter Sakura had been taken away from her. Unfortunately, she lacked the power and resolve to go against her husband's decisions as it was and had resigned herself to live in the background. She still worried though.

"By the way Aoi-san," Kirei interjected one last time. "Unfortunately your husband Tokiomi-san has passed away in the conflict. He was killed by a child from Rin-chan's school whom is also participating in the conflict." He continued to lay it on, never wavering and speaking with the utmost confidence. "I have reason to believe that Rin-chan is also currently being held by the child so I cannot say if her safety is guaranteed."

"…" Aoi didn't know how to respond. She'd been searching Fuyuki city all night and here Kirei was saying that her daughter was staying with her Husbands killer? It was unfathomable. Her heart clinched in her chest as she responded for the final time. "I-I see…" was all that came before she hung up, all semblance of hope given up. She may have lost both daughters within the span of a year if Rin didn't come back.

* * *

**Word Count: 10,836**

**A better chapter this time I hope. Trying to shove Rin off back to her mother.**

**P.S: Review please. **

**P.P.S: Also, if someone wishes to Beta Read please PM me. Basically you'll be the person to proof read and tell me if something sounds stupid.**

**superpierce:**

**Hunters aren't from any particular series. I came up with it as an original thought. More like a multinational government funded operation.**

**ezok:**

**Ah, you saw the reference. Not sure how far that should go exactly but the probability of more than a few cameos isn't high. By that I mean no Inter-Species Exchange Program or anything like that.**


	9. CH 8: Return

**Chapter 8: Return**

* * *

As I continued to jump off of the roof a countless number of times I could see Maiya out of the corner of my eye pulling a large number of magazines and varying grenades from the munitions case. Most of said magazines were for the calico she held while a few were meant for the Steyr AUG off to the side and the even smaller magazines for the Glock nineteen off to the other side.

Meanwhile Irisviel was getting ready to go out and purchase a phone book so we could contact Rin's mother. It wouldn't be long until we all left. I was pretty sure that Maiya would stay here and look over our gear while Rider accompanied us into the market area.

Rin…Rin was still trying to figure out how best to murder her father. At least I think she is. Her face looks quite determined even as she's watching me with clenched fists.

"Alright!" Irisviel called out from within the house. "Time to go!"

That was our que as I jumped off the roof one final time, Rider yet again catching me with her outstretched arms before placing me on the ground. Rin then sidled up to me and walked beside me as we traversed through the house to the main entrance with Rider following up closely behind us even as a blue haze enveloped her form and her casual attire was once more fitting her body.

"Rider-san," Irisviel began as we moved towards the car. "I can't actually drive properly at the moment so could you do it please." She said this even as she moved to the passenger door.

Rider merely nodded in response once before sidling into the car while Rin and myself hopped in the back before strapping ourselves in. I knew Rider had A rank in Riding but that didn't mean that her driving couldn't be somewhat erratic. That and I had yet to experience it.

"So, Kane-san," Irisviel started talking to us once more after Rider had pulled out onto the main road. "Wouldn't you have had trouble moving around the city since you're so young?"

A reasonable question I guess. "I've been doing my best not to stick around some areas for too long and I've been avoiding people I know or have met before. I haven't been watching the news though, so I don't know if people who watch it have seen my face. I'll probably try to stay with a low profile until the war ends anyway and avoid being around people too often if I can help it."

Especially ones that know my face. I'm pretty sure I'd done a good job of it so far considering I hadn't been found yet.

"That's a good plan." The voice of a man nearby spoke up. The only relevant person I could think of was Kiritsugu.

Turning to face him his face bore a lopsided grin as he sucked in a lungful of air before grimacing and muttering something about wondering if he could still smoke. Probably not.

"Well, since you're done playing for the moment I suppose I could start telling you about things you should or want to know." Kiritsugu mumbled, looking off to the side where Irisviel was readjusting herself in her seat. He then looked back to me. "You better not screw this up." The threat was ever present in the tone of his voice…

I looked towards Irisviel, "Irisviel-san, your husband just said he was going to hurt me." I looked back to Kiritsugu who's face was now as white as a sheet.

"Kiri did?" Irisviel looked back at me in slight surprise, "Is he here with us right now?"

I pointed beside me at the empty seat causing Rin to look distinctly uncomfortable on the far side of the car. Clearly the woman couldn't see him but she believed me enough already once I had told her something that not even I knew about the couple that Kiritsugu had told me. It was odd to see me in those first moments after I'd claimed the ability to talk to the dead, plucking information from thin air with no reasonable way to have obtained it.

"Kiri-chan!" Irisviel admonished him, Kiritsugu already looking suitably cowed by the woman. "We don't hurt children!"

"Thanks a lot…" he mumbled to me, sulking in his corner of the car.

"Well?" I asked him, prepared to listen to what Kiritsugu had to say. He looked a little confused for a moment before snapping back at the memory of the words only a few moments ago.

"Right," he began, professionalism taking the reigns once more. "Before we begin is there anything specific you'd like to know?"

Anything specific?

Hmm, I suppose it'd be that guy I met last night.

"What are Hunters?" I turned to face him once more, mildly curious about the face of slight distress that graced his features. Now I was genuinely curious.

"Who told you about those?"

"Some secret agent guy that confronted us last night, called me a Hunter." I admitted freely much to the shock of the man. The experience had been slightly uncomfortable to say the least.

"…You look more human than I expected." His eyes squinted slightly before relenting. "Hunters are…well they're not Human, they're Hunters."

As if that explained anything. Though it did answer Rider's question from earlier about whether or not I was Human. That and apparently I was the only one calling myself a Fullbringer or was that just Ginjou's influence.

"To get into detail we have to start with the fact that Magic isn't actually a secret of the Magus community anymore. What happened was that even though all of the minds of the people in the vicinity of a magus confrontation were erased, since none of them know how technology works, as is common among the magus community, no one erased the digital recording done by a CCTV security system." He sighed lightly, pinching the bridge of his nose.

As wonderful as it is to know that Magi are still inherently bad with technology, it still didn't explain the situation to the degree I desired.

"Once the recording was found by the police investigators in the area it got passed up the food chain and hit senate level pretty quickly. Since no one has the digital manipulation skills to pull of what the Magi did at the time, that and the apparent lack of memories, it was considered quick proof that something else existed out there. Of course, the clocktower tried to intervene and mitigate the damage but it was far too gone by then and all that could be done was to either kill everyone in parliament and erase the entire countries memories, or hope for the best. Since the former couldn't realistically be carried out it was left alone."

"Along come the Hunters. A child of someone in Parliament exhibited odd abilities and behaviour and managed to gain some special abilities. The child it turned out was a sociopath, killed several pets and even tried to kill the neighbour's children. It was taken away to care and that was the end of it and the rest were instantly considered to be just as unstable. A special group was formed called the Hunter guild made up entirely of Hunters, operated by the UN after several countries disclosed to each other the information of their discoveries. Each member was either found out in public or taken from their families at a young age. It's used for global peacekeeping and an official Magi deterrence. I don't know much else other than that."

"Huh…" I wasn't sure what to make of that. It probably meant that I was going to be abducted by that other guy, Smith. Trained up and sent out into the field. Free training was a yes, while serving other countries was a no. Never been interested in joining the army or some other likeness. The one time I did apply for an officer scholarship program they didn't accept me. Wasn't patriotic enough. Expected me to say things like, 'For the motherland', or some crap. I just wanted my degree to get paid for.

"…If that's all," Kiritsugu butted into my wandering thoughts, "When you get back ask Maiya for some training in using one of the pistols. She uses the Glock Nineteen as a sidearm…" he sized me up for a second. "Given your earlier display of physical ability you should potentially be able to use it effectively. There should be at least two spares in the case Maiya uncovered. Ask her for one to hold onto for the duration of the war."

Hm, I kind of want to be able to use my Fullbring sooner or later but an immediate murder weapon would do wonders if utilised properly.

"I suggest you stay close by Maiya for the remainder of the war while Saber and Rider fight Archer, the grail will have started manifesting upon the death of the fifth servant…Iri, will no longer be able to help you by that point." Some deep-seated feeling of regret seemed to spring forth into his voice if only slightly. "It is possible that by this point that Kirei and Archer have formed a contract and Archer will be back to full power. If that is true then it will require both the full might of Saber and Rider to put him down effectively, especially with that treasury of his."

Kiritsugu seemed to trail off at that point, relegating himself to staring out the window of the car with quick glances to Irisviel every so often.

"…" Rin on the other hand had been watching me converse with what in her opinion had been nothing but thin air. She was slightly disturbed that there happened to be some invisible being that she couldn't see sitting on the other side of the car. I'd been delegated to sitting in the middle after the prospect of ghosts had been revealed. I was the quote unquote 'barrier' between the two.

It didn't take much longer from there on to make it into the market place and for Rider to park the car nearby. From there it was pretty easy to make our way through the crowd as I tried keeping one of the others between the other civilians and myself just in case I was still on some kind of watch list, though if that guy last night was a government official I may have been listed as found or something and injured just in case I did die in the Grail War. Scary prospect.

Fortunately, no one seemed to recognise me though I was sure I drew a few curious gazes so I snagged a hoodie and went for the typical 'I'm hiding in plain sight' routine with my head covered. Less stares, all is well. I believe there was also a saying about acting confident and no one would believe anything was wrong? I might have that one wrong.

Rider, being as tall as she is, managed to spot a news agent further down the street over the tops of everyone's heads.

"Ohhh!" Irisviel nearly gasped as she walked into the store drawing one or two strange looks but quickly managed to stifle it with a radiant smile, merely attracting a different kind of look afterwards. "Hm, where would the phone books be?" she thumbed her chin as she looked about where as I picked up on the location pretty easily and wandered off by myself with Rin and Rider at my sides.

Thumbing through a few pages I quickly caught sight of the surname, 'Zenjou'. From there it was merely singling out the proper number to contact.

"Hey Rin." I showed Rin the book. "Look through these Zenjou names for the right address." Passing it off to her I looked over to where Irisviel was looking though an assortment of items including the magazine section where her hand was reaching for some of them…I should probably get her out of there.

"Oh my…" Irisviel whispered to herself as she saw the magazine she pulled out where as Kiritsugu was flailing about trying to get her to not open the particular porn mag she had just found…

In a flash I was over there just as Irisviel was beginning to open the front page, snatched the magazine from her hands and placed it back before taking her hand and leading her back to the front of the store like a curious lost child. She did looked slightly miffed that she missed out on some potent educational material, if only because there were some rather ripped people decorating the front cover.

"We found the phone book Irisviel." I said in the hope to calm her down a little and to stop her from going back later to confirm what she thought she had seen.

I mean, it's not like she hadn't seen a naked man or woman before, having been with Kiritsugu and being a woman herself, but there was a slight nuance to the difference of exposing oneself to their partner and exposing oneself to the public. There was no need for Iri to become confused between the two with that naïve head of hers. Not to mention, Rin is nearby.

"That's wonderful! We can call Rin's carer's now!" Irisviel exclaimed happily as we met the other two whom had stayed at the front of the store. Rider was already paying for the book while Rin waited off to the side looking at us as we approached. She seemed more or less calm about the situation. Definitely somewhat trusting though not so much so that she's very talkative at the moment. Could still be reeling a little about the reveals. Who knows.

"Come on Rin, Rider." I nodded towards the exit as I practically dragged Irisviel out the door. At the moment it was almost like dragging a limp person by the arm whom could still walk with how much resistance she was giving me. I guess she was on her way out then. Kind of cruel the Einzberns are.

Rin quickly followed after with Rider bringing up the rear, Rin practically gluing herself to my side with how close she was.

"So have you still got that phone on you Irisviel." I looked up at the woman as we made our way back to the car.

She froze a moment later…

I'll take that as a no then. The woman was the perfect definition of a joyous, naïve clutz. Ah, must be nice.

"Well, we can always use a payphone then." There were quite a few nearby from what I had seen. "Or we can go back to the house and use the phone there." I looked to Rin. "What do you want to do Rin? Do you want to call the people you're staying with now or do you want to call them once we get back to the house?"

Rin didn't hesitate to respond, so quickly in fact that she almost cut me off before I could finish stating the options. "Now please. My Mother is probably wondering where I am." She looked slightly guilty as she looked off to the side. "After last night, I think it's best that my Mother comes to pick me up just in case we come across any more bad people like the one that hurt Uncle Kariya."

I frowned at the mention of Zouken. Damn bug man. Never liked him. I could understand him as a character since there are always vile people in the world but defiling young girls is just too far. I'm not sure there is a line the man won't cross just for that wish of immortality. Visual Novel information mentioned the poor excuse doesn't even remember why he wanted to be immortal in the first place…but guess what? It's because he was in love with some Einzbern chick from two-hundred years ago!

Moving on, I could see Irisviel and Rider looking at the pay phone like they'd never seen one before in their life. Irisviel was understandable, no technology magi or something. Sounds kind of stupid considering Kiritsugu's earlier explanation of how the world came to know of magic. If the magi had known about it, it wouldn't have gotten out.

Rider on the other hand was looking at the thing that she pulled off of the receiver and the silver cable that came out of the base of the phone possibly wondering what the function was…Seriously Grail? Again, the servants know what money is but they don't know how to use it properly.

I idly wondered if the exchange of money in Rider's mind was like the exchange of goods in a market back in ancient Greece, 'this pig equals three ducks' or something. Then again as a Goddess she likely didn't have to worry about purchasing her own goods or hunting for food until after she was banished to the shapeless Isle…scratch purchasing goods. There were no markets on the shapeless Isle.

Rin thankfully knew full well how to use one and was yet again donning her face that said, 'Are you and idiot?' towards the two women currently trying to figure out how to work a phone. I think the interactions with us were fine tuning that Tsundere personality even now. Truly, to be surrounded by idiots and you wouldn't want to interact with them half the time.

"What are they doing?" Rin whispered beside me feeling slightly out of place in the setting.

In a private setting this may have proven to be ridiculously hilarious. Unfortunately this was in the public setting and as such I was feeling slightly more than mildly embarrassed that I could be linked to the two women trying to figure out how to work a payphone and failing miserably.

"I don't think they know how to use a pay phone." I responded as calmly as possible even though I was currently becoming very annoyed with the prospect of technologically inept magi festering in every crevice around the world. It was easy to learn really.

Fortunately, Rin decided she had had enough at this point and came to the rescue as she wrestled the phone out of Irisviel's hands and demanded for two-hundred Yen from either of the women.

Rider being the only one with any coin on her handed the money over without a word and watched as intensely as Irisviel as Rin pushed the coins into the slot on the box before telling Rider to show her the number she had pointed out earlier in the phone book. Rider of course did so and both of the older women marvelled over the fact that pushing a few simple numbers on the machine would allow her to call someone in another city…Again, I am thoroughly embarrassed.

"Hello Zenjou-san!" Rin began as the call connected. "This is Tohsaka Rin, I was hoping I could speak to my Mother…" She paused for a minute as the words coming back obviously gave her some guilt.

"H-hello…" Rin stuttered as she heard her mother over the phone. "Yes, I'm fine. I'm not hurt at all." Rin spared me a glance. "A friend from school helped me last night when I got lost…I was out trying to find my friend Kotone from school. She went missing in Fuyuki and I thought I could help her…"

Off to the side Kiritsugu waited, digging through his pockets for something though he looked mildly disappointed when he didn't find what he was looking for. Probably that packet of cigarettes he was craving. Well, well, looks like the freshly dead can't smoke after all. Jokes on him, he's probably lucky they didn't kill him before a bullet did.

Eh, well, I had a personal favour I needed to ask of him anyway.

"Hey, Kiritsugu!" I bit out a harsh whisper, trying not to gather any attention by looking like I was talking to myself.

"Yeah?" the man grouched back, clearly upset that he was missing out on his cigarette around about now. "What is it?"

"I have a…personal request to make." I was beginning to wonder, because why exactly it hadn't occurred to me earlier, were there any Shinigami around here? If so, where were they?

"I need you to go check the storm water drain on the Shinto side of Fuyuki. Just go inside and scout around and report back your findings. It used to be Caster's lair and there are sure to be a load of child corpses in there, but I need to know if there are any spirits of the children left over in there." I was mildly curious if there were any child spirits left in there or whether or not their entire spiritual bodies had been devoured to power caster. Well, that and Hollows.

With all the negative energy that is sure to be down there, there is a slim chance one or two could be in there. Fuyuki isn't exactly this century's local spirit ground so the chances were already low to begin with, but if I was born with Hollow powers in Australia then there was always a chance.

Kiritsugu appeared to pick up on the slight apprehension in my voice. "Riiight." He didn't move for a moment. "Anything else I should be aware of?"

"Um, just, you know, giant spirit eating monsters and the Shinigami…" I trailed off at that looking somewhat sheepishly at anything but Kiritsugu.

"…Are you serious?" his look mirrored disbelief. Then again, what did he know. He was only freshly dead. "Spirit eating monsters and the Shinigami?" his toned said, 'nope'.

"…" Ok, I should have expected that at least, it was only natural. "Honestly, the Shinigami aren't even really Shinigami. They ferry souls of the dearly departed into the after life so they're the least of your worries at the moment."

"They?" Again, disbelief. "There's more than one Shinigami?"

"Technically speaking, they all used to be human. There's a Shinigami academy and everything. You could become one when you pass over." I tried to make it sound less scary than it actually was. I mean, who came up with the idea of a Konso? The whole process was idiotic. Draw your sword to perform the Konso? What soul wouldn't freak out at the guy that drew his sword meant for them?

"It's the monsters you should be looking out for. They're called Hollows. Basically, they're going to want to eat you if they see you." I wasn't sure I could have worded that better. 'They want to suck out your soul Juice?'. No, that sounded worse. Technically not wrong though.

"What I'm trying to say is that since you're almost the only spirit I've ever seen in Fuyuki, I'm wondering where they all are exactly." It was true. Over the last year I'd seen two, maybe three Shinigami and at most, five or six souls. If you think about it, it is quite abnormal. I expected to see more souls. I knew from the initial arc in Bleach that a Shinigami can be assigned a post for months at a time so the low number of Shinigami wasn't anything to worry about and from my own experience, they usually travelled in pairs. Rukia being by herself was highly irregular.

The number of souls though, I expected that to be higher, especially around the hospital with all the deaths that happen there. Just as many were saved mind you. They weren't incompetent.

Either, one; the Shinigami in this city are ridiculously competent compared to the ones that are stationed in Karakura. I was seriously hoping it was this one. Or two; The grail eats people after they die and if the Shinigami don't get to them in time they go…poof?

Either way it would be good to know.

A frown marred Kiritsugu's face. It wasn't like this phenomenon would exactly hurt the living in any way as long as they were spiritually inept so why bother?

"Please…" I moaned.

"…Fine." Kiritsugu seemingly grunted after a moment. "You'll be back at the house by the time I get back right?"

"Yeah, probably." I didn't know how long this would take after all. If he didn't come back I'd have to go with Rider later to check it out and I'd honestly rather not. I may not have been as queasy as my siblings were in my past life but even then I'd still rather not see child corpse piled up high.

"Alright then. I'll meet you back there." With all said and done he left with a wave over his shoulder to go investigate a potential death trap all while still mumbling about not being able to use a cigarette to cool his nerves.

Back to Rin however and it would appear that she was rather happy with the outcome of her short conversation with her mother. Apparently she'd finished during my conversation with Kiritsugu and the three females of the group had deigned to wait until I finished off before joining up with me.

"So, how'd it go?" I asked. It was pretty obvious that Rin would be out of here by the end of the day at a minimum.

"Good. Mother said she is coming to get me right now." Rin smiled slightly, having apparently forgotten about the few atrocities she'd faced for now. It would likely spill back over once she got back home. That was for her mother to deal with though, so I'd leave it there. "She want's to pick me up at the train station, so Einzbern-san said she'll drive us there."

"Alright then! Let's go!" I tried sounding enthusiastic, though a slight part of me felt a little upset that Rin was leaving so soon. Probably because her child form looked so damn cute.

Rider looked slightly relieved that she wouldn't have to look after two children in a death trap anymore while Irisviel was still buzzing about and learning about the world around her. Meh, as long as everyone is happy I suppose that's all I can ask for.

* * *

Waiting for the train in itself was pretty boring…at least I though Rin's mother would be coming by train. Originally, she came by car to pick up Rin in the middle of the night but Kariya is dead so not comatose Aoi Tohsaka anymore. Probably still a bit of a doormat though.

Instead I introduced a game to Rin. The classic, rock, paper, scissors, or Janken as I believe it is in Japan. I wasn't entirely sure and I didn't care.

Rin though, judging by her fuming face at the ten loss streak was about to blow. Even as a child she liked to win.

"Mou!" Rin pouted slapping my hands away at her eleventh loss in a row. "How do you keep winning? I've only won twice so far and you've won waaaay more!" the tone of voice told me that she still might've complained even if I'd only won once.

I shrugged in return. "Practice I guess." The way it came out sounded more like a question than an actual answer. The truth of the matter was that Rin held her hand a certain way every time she picked a form. I was feeling a little vindictive though so I pressured her again. "Come on, let's play again." I grabbed Rin's shoulders and turned her towards me with a smile. "You'll get better. I promise."

Rin merely jerked away. "Maybe you should play a game with Rider then." She sounded more than a little upset.

"Eh?" my response seemed to make Rin's shoulders perk up slightly.

No way. There's absolutely no possible way I'd win. She's a servant and I'm me. Maybe I should have just let Rin win.

It was too late for a rebuttal however as Rider had apparently heard. Not too hard when she's sitting right next to us on the bench looking out for potential enemies.

A moment later and Rider had her hand held out and pulled Rin close and began lecturing her on predicting the enemies movement or some such causing a look of realisation to dawn on Rin's face. Had Rider just told Rin what her tell was? That was so unfair! Rider then held her hand out to me urging me to play as well.

I merely narrowed my eyes in response whispering 'traitor' to her as I played along and held out my hand. Rider unfortunately, was a master with the poker face where as I tended to lead my opponent in the opposite direction.

Needless to say, while I may have still won a handful of games, Rider certainly managed to pull of ten times as many wins as I did. That is to say, after eleven games, and me only winning once, Rin was once again trying to beat me in the game with renewed vigour.

The result was her winning maybe one or two more games here and there but that was about it. I still won a majority of the time.

"Rin?" a foreign voice broke our focus into the winning streak I'd once again begun accumulating much to the disgruntlement of Rin.

Turning our eyes to the woman who'd called out it was plain to see that this was Rin's mother. She wore a doormat like expression that I'd expected of her while her hands where curled into fists, bringing up the hem of her dress. A clear tell that she was nervous. The object of said emotion was clear as every now and then her eyes flittered to me. Apparently, someone had told her that I'd killed her husband. Probably Kirei, my money was on him.

Aoi had taken the liberty of sparing Rin of that knowledge while she was on the phone it appeared. Otherwise I was afraid that our interactions with each other wouldn't have been nearly as amiable as they had been so far.

"Mum!" Rin bounced off of the seat we were on and crashed into her mother's legs hugging them tightly.

Aoi seemed to relax slightly once Rin was within her arms. "Are you ok?" she turned Rin around in a circle even as she asked that to check Rin for any injuries by herself.

It was then that Irisviel decided to come back from her bout of wandering around the few stores near the train station entrance.

"Hello!"

Her sudden introduction and closeness to Aoi nearly made the woman jump, though she did squeal slightly with a bit of fright. She quickly calmed herself back down though, clearly caught unawares by Irisviels naturally sunny disposition.

"Um, hello?" Aoi was clearly unsure of whom this albino was. "I'm Tohsaka Aoi." She introduced herself clearly nervous.

Irisviel smiled in return holding out her hand for a handshake which Aoi hesitantly returned. "I'm Irisviel Von Einzbern. Nice to meet you Aoi-san." Her eyes drifted to Rin for a moment. "I take it you're Rin-chan's mother then?"

"Y-yes." Aoi confirmed hesitantly. She slowly began backing away despite the obvious goodwill of Irisviel. It made sense to some extent. She who lacks magic is at a severe disadvantage to those whom possess it, especially when unprepared. "Thankyou for taking care of Rin and making sure no harm comes to her but we must leave now." She spared me one last glance.

Aoi then grabbed Rin's hand in a surprising show of force and practically dragged Rin away in hurried steps even as Rin stumbled over her own feet to keep up initially.

* * *

"Mother!" Rin said aghast at the woman's behaviour. "Stop dragging me!"

"!" Aoi stopped suddenly to stare at Rin for a moment. She hadn't realised what she had been doing in her attempt to put as much distance between them as possible. "Sorry Rin, but those are dangerous people." She confessed. "It's best if you don't talk to them again."

That just drew a confused look to Rin's face even as she climbed into the car her mother had driven.

"Why?" her innocent voice pleaded. She happened to like them a bit.

"…Kotomine-san said that that boy killed your father."

Eyes widening Rin could only gape for a few seconds in which her mother had decided to strap in Rin's seatbelt by herself so they could move on more quickly.

"R-r-really?" her voice cracked and stuttered for a moment. The boy that had saved her from a horrible fate with that strange man whether she knew it or not had killed her father?

It was an odd few moments as Rin proceeded to process that information over and over in her mind, staying completely silent. Her father had given away Sakura to the Matou's, a family from which Uncle Kariya originated and was forced to return to for a reason she could only fathom as saving Sakura from their clutches. The reason was obvious. The things that had been done to Uncle Kariya made her feel ill even now from just thinking about it.

Blind in one eye, movement rendered to that of a disabled man and creatures that she could see writhing beneath his flesh. The way his skin physically crawled was a testament to that last one. He had said _'This is what happens to those using the Matou Magecraft'_. Would that happen to Sakura too eventually?

If so, her sister…

Then there was Kane. The boy whom had killed her Father.

Sure, she had a few passing interactions at school, even if they had hardly recognised each other at the time but she couldn't come to label him as a bad person. But he had killed her Father, a man that gave Sakura away to monsters…Did he do it knowingly?

She didn't know what to think. She adored her father dearly for teaching her magecraft, but she couldn't find it in herself to forgive him either for giving Sakura away for the sake of Magecraft.

"_Pretend that she never existed to begin with."_

She couldn't do that! No matter what was asked of her.

Was this all that Magecraft was good for? Tearing families apart?

* * *

The smell was certainly unpleasant, he'd give it that.

Kiritsugu walked further into the underground storm water drain listening for anything that would give away another's presence at all. Those creatures that the child had talked about. Hollows. They were something he was supposed to be the wariest about. He hadn't received a physical description so he assumed it would be pretty obvious when he did come across one.

The Shinigami?

Supposedly it would be fine if he came across one as they'd just send him on, to the afterlife. He'd rather that didn't happen however as he needed to make sure that everything was taken care with for the Grail before such a thing happened. Then of course there was Illya…He wondered if he'd be able to make it to Germany like he was and talk to Illya.

Unlikely, even his wife Irisviel couldn't see him, so there was little chance that his daughter could. Perhaps there was some way to interact with the physical plane despite being restricted to a spiritual body? He'd have to ask the child if he knew. He was just full of surprises at the moment after all. Good ones that is.

Something sounded off ahead. It sounded like stone being rendered by an incredibly sharp object, well, concrete in this case. It was all the same however. Something incredibly suspiscious.

Kiritsugu lightened his footsteps as he moved more quickly than before, making sure not to rattle the chain that now hung from his chest too much.

The sounds started growing louder, loud enough to try and discern how many individuals were present. Footsteps sounded off the walls of concrete, echoing throughout the network of tunnels, once more accompanied by the scratching noise that persisted in the background. The footsteps however went unimpeded.

"…a mess." A male voice could be heard now, even around the few corners that remained.

"I don't think I'll be eating for a few days…" the disgust could be heard in anothers voice even as dry heaving could be heard being produced by another individual.

"Be that as it may, we have to clean these bodies up and identify them as soon as possible."

Kiritsugu tuned out the rest of the conversation from there. It would appear that the local authorities had been notified or located the missing children recently and only had the time now to respond. They were lucky that it wasn't the previous day otherwise they may not have come back.

The scratching noise continued though, and the discussion between the people in the tunnels went on unimpeded even as the noise grew louder and louder. That may be due to Kiritsugu closing the distance, but he was sure that these people would be able to hear such a noise, even as he now stood right around the corner to the cavernous opening. They should, they must…unless…the Hollow.

Peering around the corner he could see the various officers in hazmat suits go about their business, packing various children into body bags as a large creature loomed over them all on eight legs, a body much like that of an arachnid and a hole going through the thorax. Its body was large enough to fill the tunnel he was currently in, from one side to the other while its obscenely long legs prevented even the head of the tallest person walking beneath it from touching the underside by at least half a metre.

It and the people beneath it seemed to be completely oblivious to each other as the head of the arachnid was lowered, munching on something below. He could make out the intervals in between the bites and they matched up exactly with the scratching noise that could be heard, along with the now pronounced sound of flesh being severed continuously and the sound of muffled whimpers and cries.

"**No."** a deep rumbling voice echoed out as one of the deceased children tried desperately to crawl away unnoticed. **"No leaving. Become my food."** A single leg reached out, spearing the child's body thorough the torso with several pronounced leg hairs and dragging the body through the physical ones on the way, nocking them over as it went.

"Huh?" one of the people seemed to notice the movement. "What was that?"

The arm retracted, bringing the child to the face of the monster. Ebony white was the colour of the jaw from what he could see as the maw stretched open wide and swallowed the screaming child whole.

…He needed to leave. Now!

* * *

Aoi wasn't pleasant to meet. I had half expected the meeting to play out this way after all. Well, somewhat anyway. Kirei had a fetish for watching other people suffer after all and any torment he could and would inflict was just so he could feel a sliver of joy even if it was entirely at someone else's expense. No, rather, the only joy he would ever accomplish would be entirely at someone else's expense. Always.

He'd reign himself in for sure, if only to avoid the ire of the church. When he could get away with it however, it was free game.

Irisviel had been slightly confused by the interaction but chalked it up to the woman being a highly nervous mother that had had her child taken care of by strangers.

To some extent she was correct and her self-provided analysis of the situation had been sufficient enough for her to forget about it in its entirety.

Now though, with Rider in her usual stoic façade despite the small glimmer of something else beneath, all of us were back at the property that had been purchased pre-war. It was a rundown piece of crap, but it would be magnificent once built back up. There was no doubt about it.

However, speaking of said piece of crap, I was now doing target practice on said building with a board of wood leaned up against a building support and a crudely drawn target on said board.

"Square your shoulders more and move your foot back slightly." Maiya commanded as I pointed the Glock Nineteen she had wordlessly handed over to me when I had spoken of using the weapon to defend myself from Kirei should the need arise.

Maiya had been fine with handing the spare weapon over to me with only a fraction of a moment's worth of deliberation. The only question I supposed that went through her mind in that moment would have been, 'will this boy shoot me?'

Obviously, the answer she came up with was no, or at the very least it was highly unlikely. That seemed to be enough as she then proceeded to lecture me on a good stance to hold while wielding the weapon in my six-year-old hands. With the way she knew about how a child should use such a weapon it made me think that she may have been a child soldier at some point in her life as well…No, I vaguely remember something along those lines now that I think about it.

"Now breath in and hold," Maiya continued as I trained my eyes down the sight. "Exhale and breath back in once more." I did as she told me. "Exhale partially and hold." The swaying in my arms decreased slightly as I did as she told me. "Fire."

Pulling the trigger was somewhat liberating as I'd never had the chance to fire a gun ever before. Unfortunately I was unprepared for the sudden kickback produced and my arms swung wide causing the bullet to miss by quite a bit.

I pulled the gun back onto point again, repeating the breathing exercise Maiya had told me before applying more tension to my arms this time and firing once more. It didn't swing nearly as wide this time, and I managed to clip the edge of the board, a two-metre-wide board at the distance of fifteen metres. All in all, it wasn't bad for a second shot, but I had to do better. Right now though, the recoil was far to great for even my rapidly developing musculature to handle effectively.

Hm. What could I do to enhance my strength enough to handle the recoil?

Prana? No. I don't even know how to use it and I haven't been taught how I should attempt to even try to access my magic circuits.

Spirit energy? No again. I hadn't trained in its manipulation to a great extent even though I could manipulate it to a degree, enough so that I could direct it to a portion of my body and feel an increase in ability. It was highly inefficient however and tired me out quickly, so until I had better control than my budding three days worth of experience it would have to be left out of the equation for life and death scenarios.

Bringer Light? It was a possibility. I couldn't deny it. Canonically I'd never seen someone perform a physical enhancement in the way I intended. The anime version of Bleach demonstrated Ichigo enhancing a kick with Bringer Light rather than the brute strength he'd shown in the manga. It had only been used to enhance the velocity of his foot however, a slight alteration to the air walking technique. I wanted a Bringer Light rendition of reinforcement magic.

"For a child you're doing ok." Maiya admitted as she went up to inspect the board I'd shot after I'd lowered my gun. "It'll need to be better than that by tomorrow. I expect you to be able to hit within this circle," she tapped the target that had been drawn, a measly thirty centimetres in diameter, "by tomorrow midday at a distance of twenty metres."

That's going to be fucking impossible.

"I did this when I was five." Maiya admitted. "It should be easy for you."

"…" I stared at her intently for a moment trying to tell whether she was lying or not. "…" Probably not. Then again, besides her little episode last night when getting out of the car after driving with Irisviel she had had the face of a statue. Completely inexpressive except for when something slightly annoying had come up, such as when the command seals that were now firmly printed on the back of her right hand were put there.

I readied myself up once more and reached for the tingling sensation that I felt whenever I utilised Bringer Light and 'pulled' on the muscles and bones in my arms. Instantly, the gun in my hands felt like a paper weight and not the eight-hundred or so grams it was supposed to when loaded. I could feel something else however, a slight twinge in my arms from the strain. I don't think they would give way however, just a slight discomfort until I perfected my reinforcement to the point that I also increased my durability and not just my strength.

I levelled the gun once more at the target, went through the steps I'd been shown and fired once more.

On the bright side, I hit the target. My arms had barely moved, though I'd need to perform a few consecutive shots to prove that it wasn't a fluke.

On the not so bright side, my wrist had snapped and I couldn't feel my hand…or rather I could but it didn't feel like a hand, more like a fluid in place of where my hand should be. Strangely enough, it didn't hurt either.

"Kane!" Rider was beside me in an instant cradling my arm as I held it out limply, just staring at it dumbly. "Wha-" she paused for a moment to look at my face, noticing that I didn't appear to be in any pain at all. "Why did this happen?"

"I tried to reinforce my arm with my ability and I think I broke my arm just after I fired the gun." I was still staring at where my wrist dangled like melting flesh. The blood that was leaking from the cuts made from the snapped bones didn't help much with the look.

I 'pulled' once more on the arm. This time the blood responded much to my amazement and pierced the skin in several places on my hand, working its way up beneath my skin. The clacking of bones could be heard as the solidified tendrils of blood pulled everything back together, returning feeling to my hand once more and leaving a network of shoddy stitches made of blood decorating my hand and forearm.

Experimentally, I flexed my arm, pulling it free of Rider's grasp. I could hear the grinding of bones over cartilage as the joints flexed. Under that I could feel something else sliding about in my hands. It didn't feel like the movements were without purpose so I wasn't too worried as it was most likely more of the blood affixing itself to my skeletal structure and securing it in place. Still, it was a weird feeling.

Apparently, everyone else could see it too as Maiya looked on in slight fascination and a twinge of horror. Irisviel herself gasped briefly as she had come out of the shed after hearing Rider's cry of surprise and took in the sight of my limb stitching itself back together.

I flexed my hand once more feeling the bones grinding uncomfortably, only to slightly lessen as more time passed.

"Hm, regeneration?" I asked myself. This would come in handy.

"This is a very strange ability." Rider admitted as she backed off slightly to see me move my arm continuously, hearing bones and tendons clacking endlessly as it did.

Picking up the gun once more, I went to fire it again at the target, but not before Saber swiftly pulled the weapon from my hands with what could be amounted to as a slight glare. At some point she must have come over and observed my hand being stitched back together as well and I'd not noticed. That or she'd been there from the start.

"You are not to use this until you have healed Kane." Saber's voice was awfully assertive in that moment. Her gaze softened however a moment later, handing the weapon over to Maiya before leaving. "Honestly."

Maiya looked to the target for a moment and then back to me. "Well, at least you hit the target."

I merely frowned in response. Admittedly it hadn't gone the way that I had wanted it to but at least it'd let me get back to practicing my air walking technique.

* * *

Saber sat down next to Irisviel once more as she continued to finalise the magic circle on the floor. It would only take a few more minutes by the looks of things.

"Saber?" Irisviel questioned the knight that sat in the room. The knight seemed slightly confused. "What's the matter?"

Looking unsure, Saber glanced at Irisviel before staring down at her own feet.

"The more I look at that child the more I am reminded of one of the knights I had under me during my time as King." Saber admitted. "He was rather foolish when it came to experimenting with new techniques and abilities that none of the other knights or myself could come to replicate. He was also quite intelligent and was capable of discerning ones physical traits very well. He was the first knight of mine to figure out my true gender. He then proceeded to call all of the other knights idiots and wondered how they hadn't figured it out the very moment they saw me. He also called me an idiot once too." Saber sighed. "He also bares great physical resemblance to the child outside. Not to mention, they have the same name too."

"Really?" this was news to Irisviel. "But there aren't any knights in the legend that have that name though, are there?"

"No, there are not. I remember him all the same however. He also formed a good friendship with Mordred if memory serves me correctly…" Saber grimaced slightly at the use of the name.

"Your son?"

"No, not my son. The knight was adamant that she wasn't actually even though she may have initially thought so. It was hard to tell. He refused to tell why and Mordred seemingly went along with it. 'He's really smart and I don't get what he's saying but I believe him'. That's what Mordred said." Saber admitted shamefully.

"Mordred was a girl too?" Irisviel paused in her work to face Saber once more. This was knews. Though she supposed that having a child between two women was physically impossible. A Homunculus clone then?

"Yes, though legends say we are both male…Merlin put a…thing on me for a bit as a prank. Apparently, Morgana heard about it and thought she could take some of my seed to produce a child. It appeared to work, though the child was physically identical to myself." It made no sense really. A child normally inherits traits of both of the parents, but Mordred was an exact replica of her, barring personality traits.

"Ah, Saber…Even if Merlin did put a…uh, thing on you, it would have been completely sterile." Irisviel admitted. She was now somewhat curious as to how Mordred did come about. "Some research has been done into this before but the hormone levels in the, uh, test subjects," it sounded like she wanted to say unwilling participants for a moment, "prevented either set of sexual organs from working at all. So, you see, Mordred can't have been yours then, or Morgana's. Rather, maybe she was a genetic clone. An identical twin."

Saber paused for a moment. "What?"

Irisviel held her chin for a moment. "That is to say, she may as well be your identical twin sister technically speaking."

And yet Saber still shut out Mordred. Things would have turned out better if that damn knight told her everything on his mind. Unfortunately, it didn't stop the battle of Camlann where Mordred had amassed an army to oppose and kill her. Perhaps this 'know it all knight' should have been King.

* * *

**Word Count: 8952**

* * *

**A bit slow compared to usual I think, but I like it for the most part.**

**A quick explanation for why Mordred can't possibly be Artoria's daughter. Basically, the way genetics and meiosis works says that by the time that sperm is produced the genes have already been randomised to some extent meaning that even if a homunculus clone was produced using solely sperm, they would bare physical traits that weren't identical to the originator. The physical stats, that is height, weight, skin/eye colour and their sizes are all exactly identical(checked using the Fate wiki). Add onto the fact that Mordred is a clone as stated in canon, she cannot have possibly been produced from sperm cells. Additionally, real life hermaphrodites are completely sterile in one or both genetalia, always. But magic! is not an excuse for me as Merlin could not have possibly known about the inner workings of the body and remodelled it to suit. He's just a perverted half-Incubus.**

**By this logic she is actually more akin to being Artoria's long lost identical twin.**

**Now as for reviews. Criticism is always welcomed, however, please do not post a review that is questioning something that was blatantly put in either the announcements in one of the chapters or in a chapter itself as an explanation unless you do not think you understand properly or think it was thorough enough. In this case, please say so without trying to make you or myself sound stupid. I will explain to the best of my abilities should it be required and I will tell you if I must leave it out if I plan to reveal it at a later date.**

**If you don't want me to reply to your review in chapter like I have been doing PM me instead.**

**I am not afraid to single you out, but for the sake of etiquette I will respond as properly as possible anyway.**

**allentey:**

**You had one good point. Where are the Hollows and dead children? I will refer you to an explanation I lent in an earlier chapter review. Fuyuki is NOT a spiritual ground and as such the likelihood of coming across a hollow is significantly lessened. In the initial chapters and episodes of the Bleach manga Ichigo is actually fighting about ten different hollows over the course of months, from what we can see. There is a chance there were more that weren't shown and I'm positive there were more that Ichigo missed but I am going to use that as the base rate for hollow invasion in a spiritually enriched land.**

**Fuyuki is not spiritually enriched land, ley lines and nexus points just happen to be called spiritually characterised by the Magus community such as when kiritsugu described the four locations for the grail to appear as possessing the necessary spiritual characteristics.**

**Even if Hollow bait were to be used it would not have as great a reaction as it would in spiritually enriched land. **

**Admittedly however, I should start including Hollows into the story soon.**

**As for children, not all of them are necessarily turned into plus souls, the ones that wander around on earth for some undetermined amount of time before turning into a hollow. Most deaths result in the spirit of the person passing on naturally to the after life. This was vaguely explained in Bleach. Shinigami are mainly there to slay the few hollows that do wander into the world of the living and forcefully pass on the stubborn souls left with great regret.**

**As for the rest of your review: **

**It was stated at the very top of chapter 1 that this would be a multi-crossover so don't be surprised. No, I will not stop. Going to other universes for such a thing seems like a cheap cop out in my mind and I've never liked those fics so this is my rendition of a multi-crossover.**

**Not all the mystery needs to be revealed within one or two chapters. A few things won't be revealed until much later on. It was also stated that the MC has Fullbring powers in chapter 1 hence they are not a normal person.**

**I highly recommend you re-read chapter 5 as it explicitly states at the very start of the chapter that Lily is Saber's reincarnation. She does not know his background at all, I never said that she does, only that he participated in the war and that he was a child at the time.**

**I'm sure people are keeping an eye out for the MC if he does come into familiar areas but I'm not going to explicitly write about those people. Just pretend in the mean time that if someone who recognises him spots him, they will without fail. **

**Zentari2238:**

**It may seem nonsensical at the moment but I am not throwing things at the wall and hoping they stick. I am introducing plot points to be explored at a later date, not immediately. They just happen to be relevant because of the characters present.**

**CHAPTER 4 REVIEW:**

**Guest:**

**It is actually unconfirmed about what servants participated in the 3rd grail war so we don't actually know whether or not Artoria did. In the Hollow Ataraxia VN there is a scene where Bazett confronts two magi with identical Sabers from the 3rd grail war despite being in the fifth, the Edelfelt sisters. The character drawings that are utilised for the Sabers are Artoria and Alter Artoria so I went with that. **

**CHAPTER 7 REVIEWS:**

**thepowerfullkira:**

**Hmm, maybe. Pairings are something that will happen but I'm unsure how to go about it exactly. I can either do a single pairing with the MC or stick to stereotypical Fate pairing style with protags Shirou Emiya and Shiki Tohno, that is, a potential Multi pairing. If that were to happen, yes, Rin would be included. Shirou is...hm, Taiga pairing? just cause. That and their interactions are somewhat suggestive sometimes even though it is all done in good humour on Taiga's part.**

**superpierce:**

**Maybe. This chapter tries to make her look conflicted about her Fathers death at the hands of the MC and the fact that her father gave her sister away.**

**Guest:**

**Shotacon?...Maybe, probably not. Rider is a good girl.**


	10. CH 9: Restitution

**First of all: I'm sorry it took so long for this to come out and that the chapter isn't longer. I initially planned for something that was about twice as long as I like to have some heft to my chapters in terms of size, sticking to a generally comfortable range of 6000-10000 words but life happened (i.e. uni work) and I started going to the gym something like 5 times a week and that ate into my schedule, then, ps4 games and shit came out so I got interested in that (Sekiro, Control, others) and now I've started reading Worm. Pretty good. Whole unwritten rule policy seems kinda stupid and redundant though but whatever, some of the powers are pretty cool.**

**Next chapter should be longer and come out a little sooner assuming I don't start procrastinating...**

* * *

**Chapter 9: Restitution**

* * *

"Kane?" Rider called out from far below.

"Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down." I kept mumbling to myself as I felt a gust of wind sweep by.

I opened an eye and did the exact thing I kept telling myself not to do. I looked down.

"Ohhh fuck!" I yelled out, completely horrified with my position in the sky.

A solid thirty metres straight up and I didn't know how to get down. What the hell do I do? Do I glide down? What if I lose control and hit the ground at terminal velocity? Will my neck snap? My spine? Will my legs be shoved up into my torso and crush my lungs? Will I just be a puddle on the ground?

I didn't want to move.

"Just leave me Rider." I cried out, clearly terrified, though I tried to maintain a somewhat cool façade. "I think I'll stay here for a bit."

This was exactly like back at that rock-climbing gym in my previous life. Fucking auto belayers! Felt like if I let go of the wall I was going to plummet to the ground.

Rider sighed and shook her head in response. She and her Master were lucky that it was already dark out otherwise he would have clearly been seen by the rest of the neighbourhood. He'd already been up there for ten minutes and refused to move. Around fifteen before that and he'd finally discovered how to fly. He was buzzing all over the place and refused to sit still even when it was time for him to eat dinner.

And now that he refused to move he was also in the worst possible position. Right out of reach and somewhere he hated being. High above the ground. She was sure he'd get over it eventually, such a thing would come with practice and experience after all.

"You can't stay up there forever Kane. You'll starve." Rider called out once more. That seemed to get a reaction out of him. Though unfortunately it wasn't the one she desired.

"Just bring it up to me." He mumbled out.

"What is that child Master of yours doing now?" Saber chose the most inopportune moment to arrive with a bowl of her own food that Irisviel had urged her to try. She had been hesitant at first, having had the many disasters that the chefs in her own castle made. Of course, then she actually tried the food and it was wonderful!

Rider merely pointed to the sky in response, her usual discomfort for her Master jumping from high places gone and replaced with utter defeat.

"Wha-" Saber began only to see the child in the air. She turned back to Rider. "What is he doing?"

"He's afraid of heights. Especially without a safety of some kind." Rider turned back to face her Master once more. "I'll catch you Kane! I can't jump that high!" Maybe half or a little less.

"Nooooooo!" her Master whined. He actually whined. And here she thought he had the mind of an adult in a child's body. Clearly, she was mistaken to some degree. "I don't wannaaaa!"

"You'll be stuck there forever if you don't come down." It was Saber this time. Clearly by the sound of her tone she wasn't impressed. "Eventually you'll run out of mana and drop out of the sky." No reaction. She supposed she'd have to up the ante then. "I'll even eat your dinner…" Saber trailed off. If this didn't work she was seriously tempted to knock him out of the sky with an underpowered blast of invisible air.

"…You wouldn't." the young Master in the sky said feeling threatened by Sabers bold proclamation.

"Mm!" This was what she wanted. "I think I'll do that right now in fact." Saber turned on her heel and entered the dimly lit house not bothering to look back at the boy still trapped in the sky due to his own efforts.

"Ahhhhhhhh!" I screamed. Dinner was like, one of the most important meals of the day. I couldn't go without it! "God dammit!"

Looking down at the ground once more I tried lessening the hold I had over the space around me. It had the intended effect as I slowly began to descend as I had when initially practicing the technique earlier today when jumping off of the rooftop. It took a few minutes but after some stopping and starting I eventually hit the ground on my arse.

"Duly noted." Rider said off to the side with a tone that said she was not impressed. "Food withholding is a suitable punishment." She strode off inside then and I could only whimper slightly. This couldn't be happening to me. Please Rider, forgive me!

I made my way inside and was met with the amused stare of Saber and Maiya. Irisviel had been clueless as to what was going on as another wave of fatigue had hit her and she could no longer move so easily as she had been a few hours beforehand. Fortunately, she hadn't seen my embarrassing episode. Unfortunately, she was almost completely incapable of movement now as only her head turned to move from her position lying down on the floor when I entered the room.

"Oh, hello Kane." Saber looked at me with a slight smile on her face. "We were just talking about how you got stuck in the sky after trying to learn how to fly."

I just sat down clearly upset that apparently everyone had been told of my little episode. I'd have to get over that real quick if I wanted to be able to fly properly in the future. Besides that, I grabbed the bowl that was handed to me and started eating, not bothering to check what it was. It's not like they were going to poison me at this point anyway…

* * *

Irisviel had been moved out to the shed by Saber right after everyone finished eating and placed on the magic circle that had been drawn there sometime earlier. Probably when I was out trying to learn how to fly using Bringer light. It didn't really matter.

Irisviel had however, asked to have a small chat to me in private so as nervous as I should have probably been sitting next to a Homunculus that was designed to be physically superior to Humans in just about every way, there was no need to as she may as well have been a limp doll at this point…Wasn't she supposed to be kidnapped from this place by Berserker in the original timeline?

…I couldn't remember too well. It didn't matter anyway as basically everyone that mattered at this point was either dead or not participating. I still wasn't sure about Kayneth but odds were that he would show up again.

Stepping through the shed door I could see Irisviel lying on the cold hard ground off to the side, though in her position it wasn't like she could see who came in properly.

"Mm, Kane-kun, is that you?" Irisviel asked trying to crane her head around to look at me and failing miserably.

It was almost a shame that her daughter would be stuck as a midget and not turn into her mother's carbon copy.

"Yeah, it's me." I said as I approached her side and sat down next to her. "What's up?"

"The roof?" Irisviel seemed slightly confused with that statement. "What do you mean?" her inquisitive eyes met mine and held their stare.

"I was just asking, how are you?" I was slightly exasperated with my response. General slang seemed to fly over the Homunculus' head. In hindsight I should have somewhat expected it. Being raised in a castle while being cut off from the rest of society tended to do that to you I'd imagine. Must've been pretty boring there.

"Oh! I'm fine…" It seemed like she wanted to say something else other than that but refrained from doing so. "I just can't feel my toes anymore. It's weird." She muttered out even as her feet did wiggle slightly. It quickly stopped however as her vision refocused on me from where it had strayed to the ceiling. "Anyway, enough about me. How are you Kane-kun? Are you upset about the War or anything else?"

It seemed as though she still saw me as a child for the most part. I could only imagine that she was trying to comfort me.

"Well, not really. I'm a little about having to participate and whoever thought it was a good idea to have a city wide war with beings from ancient history that have super powers. Well, that and my parents got killed." I mulled over my thoughts for a second, trying to see if there was anything else. "Pretty sure that's it."

Irisviel gasped slightly in horror. She couldn't imagine doing that to a family. Granted, her Illya was about to be left alone in the Einzbern castle but it wasn't like she'd be alone. "That's horrible."

"Mm, yeah, well. There's nothing that can be done about it now." I mulled over my thoughts. Come to think of it, I hadn't seen their ghosts either…that or I'd been too distracted by my impending doom to realise they were there. Perhaps, even though they were leaving me behind they didn't have any great regrets. That and they probably thought that we'd all be joining each other in the afterlife and thought they had no reason to stick around…Though I'm certain that they'd be immensely pleased that I'd managed to survive so I couldn't exactly fault them for not staying around. I certainly wouldn't want to. Though, if I did turn into a Hollow I'd make sure to get to the top of the food chain.

A silence permeated between the two of us for a moment before Irisviel spoke up again a minute later.

"I have something for you Kane-kun…a present." She frowned for a moment. "Can you give me your hands for a moment?"

I wordlessly placed my hands in hers and let her guide me to where I placed my hands on her abdomen…wait…seriously!

"I have an artefact within me at the moment that exists in a conceptual form. Think of it as something that has no physical substance but still has an effect on the world anyway." She explained. "Seeing as you are capable of magic or something else, it should be possible for you to place this within yourself for a time."

She really was going to give me Avalon. The only reason I could fathom as to why she wasn't giving it to Maiya was because she wasn't the child in this situation.

"Alriiight…" how does one use their circuits?

"Um, I don't think your method would work properly for me. I don't know how to use Magic circuits." I admitted. There was no use going into this blind.

"…Really?" Irisviel had a perplexed expression. "How did you do what you were doing then?"

"My power is a spiritual ability. I interact with spirit particles in the world around me to achieve my goal. In todays example, I learnt how to fly. I can also use it to do many other things such as reinforcing my body," as I'd learnt during gun training. "Walking on water and to alter somethings properties to a limited extent, provided I have enough spirit energy. I think it is similar to mana and ether to some extent as souls are made of spirit particles and ether can also contain souls." I just had to look at the servants for that part. Their only flaw was that they weren't self-maintaining, or rather, they couldn't produce their own Prana or spirit energy.

Irisviel looked slightly puzzled for a moment. "That means you should be able to do this anyway with your ability but it's probably better to learn now how to use your circuits." She lifted one hand and placed her palm on my chest. "This might feel a bit weird." She warned me.

A second later and a warm fuzzy feeling spread throughout my body. Quickly enough the warmth became a searing heat as I felt the multiple pathways that were there that I'd never gone about using before. Now that I knew it was there, I knew what to feel for exactly. It was strange to say the least. There appeared to be an inherent similarity between spirit energy and Prana but Prana felt more like a diluted version of spirit energy. Until I got a better hand on it to analyse it properly it'd have to do for now.

"They were already open by the looks of things but now that you know your circuits are there you should be able to use them properly." Irisviel said as she placed her hand back down on her midsection. "You have quite a few. They're also rather high quality for a first generation magus…" Irisviel's face scrunched up in confusion slightly.

"Why did it feel so hot for a second though?" I was curious. Wasn't that only supposed to happen when circuits were actively being used? The only thing that I was actively using them for was to fuel Rider but that was it.

"That was your circuits rejecting my Prana as a foreign substance. What I just did was a small intrusion to 'wake up' your circuits and have them retaliate against the foreign Prana in order to activate the circuits. Normally Prana can't be transferred from one person to another but there are a few rituals and methods that can allow the transfer with minimal discomfort. For example, drinking someone's blood is an excellent way to take their mana as blood is very good at holding mana. Once in the digestive system the body is tricked into thinking that it is sustenance and it can be absorbed."

That made sense for the most part, though mana transfer vaguely reminded me of the tantric ritual that Shirou performs with Saber and Rin in the VN in the Fate and UBW routes. Yeah, that was probably a thing.

"Hm, ok." Sure, let's go with that. "What now?"

"For now, give me your hands again and I'll guide you." Irisviel said once more making me place my hands where they were previously. "If you can follow with that strange ability of yours it might be best to use that for now until you have more control over your mana."

I wasn't even sure that my control over my ability was even any good at the moment. I'd just been winging the whole thing and I had no one for a reference point. She was probably right however and it would be best to use Bringer light for now.

I 'pulled' with Bringer Light causing a faint green flicker to appear and could instantly feel Irisviel's Prana falling within her body to retrieve something. Following it through I soon recognised something that could be considered tangible. Her prana hooked around the object and pulled on it once, the small jerk being just enough to shake the object loose within her body, gold particles were already beginning to accumulate above her.

The pull that Irisviel was exerting on the item was suddenly turned into a pushing force to repel it from her body. It was then I tried to grab a hold as well, being careful as to not pull too hard on the object we were retrieving. With the action the sudden pull caused an eruption of gold flecks to pour forth from her body and slowly converge into a single piece, Avalon.

"You were quite good with that Kane-kun." Irisviel said, diverting her eyes from the shining Noble Phantasm for a moment to look at me. "Though you were a bit quick. A little gentler would have been nice."

"Sorry." I instantly replied. I didn't exactly want to make this woman's last day on the planet any worse than it already was.

"It's alright," Irisviel tried to wave it off though a slight cringe was brought to her face a moment later from what I could only assume was the pain of the situation. "Now, place it inside your own body."

…How do I do that?

Do I somehow grind it into dust or something?

Maybe I should try pulling it apart with Bringer light and try to merge the particles with my body. The instant I did so, nothing happened. Rather a shocking revelation came to me. The entire thing was made of spirit particles and reinforced with mana and what I could only assume to be ether to take on a physical appearance…trippy. Or did spirit particles equal ether…? Probably why Fullbring can be seen by regular humans, the mana part that is. It also told me why a foreign heavy metal wasn't wreaking havoc to her insides. The object in question didn't actually have a physical form…

This played a few questions on what could be considered 'conceptual'. At its core meaning, 'concept', meant 'an idea'. Therefore, imposing a concept on something would be very much like Kiritsugu's bullets imbued with the concept of cutting and tying on bullets with his ground up ribs. Normally such a thing wouldn't have the ability to do something like that. But the bones possessed a part of Kiritsugu's spirit? Hence the bullets were imbued with his spiritual power? So, was implementing a concept just giving an object an ability it normally would never have with spiritual origins?

In that case, relating my Fullbring ability to that of the concept of soul manipulation with the environment would mean that implementing a concept would just be changing the spirit particle structure of any item in question, thereby changing the spiritual effects of said item while empowering the effect merely required an induction of energy…If this was true it meant that while Magi had the ability to implement concepts upon items it didn't actually mean they knew why those concepts were imbued upon the items in question even if they knew the method…Potential gold mine?

"Um, how do I absorb it?" I looked to Irisviel for a moment, confusion clear on my face.

"Do you remember what it felt like when it was forming?" Irisviel asked.

"Kind of." Not really. Went off on a tangent trying to figure shit out.

"Rather than trying to pull it apart, try to imbue it with your prana or spirit energy and then pull that back into you." She said that with a completely straight face. "It turns it into a spiritual entity that can exist within other spirits."

I wasn't so sure about that. If what she said was true I could technically absorb say, a pencil and then spit it back out whenever I wanted to but that was physical matter and not spiritual and at this point I was starting to think that there might not be much of a difference. If that was the way it worked then why didn't magi keep other personal equipment stored within their soul or something. The answer was probably that it couldn't be done with most objects and that they required a high enough spiritual saturation, something that couldn't normally by done…probably. Or the fact it wasn't made of spiritual matter…I take back what I said previously. It most certainly has to be constructed from spiritual matter. I didn't want to think about the fact that I could have pencil accidentally materialise in my chest and accidentally stab myself in the heart…or worse.

Come to think of it, this sounds awfully familiar. Urahara Keisuke stored the Hogyoku in Rukia's soul for some period of time before it was taken by Aizen. Perhaps this worked by a similar principal, though Aizen needed some weird ritual to do it whereas I could just supposedly pull this thing in and out of my body at will.

I did so as Irisviel said and instantly the mass collapsed into motes of gold light before being funnelled into my body. It felt weird. There was this odd pressure on my body that I hadn't felt before. Almost as though my skin became tighter and my body was too small to house me now.

"Good job!" Irisviel applauded. She grunted slightly in discomfort. "You must be tired."

Not really. It's only what? Eight.

Granted that is probably a suitable time for a six-year-old to go to bed. Probably sooner if you asked most.

"Why don't you head off to bed now then." She continued unhindered.

I could say no but I got the feeling that I wasn't welcome anymore despite Irisviel's kind tone. Kiritsugu on the other hand wandered in through a wall and sat down beside his wife for the time being even though they couldn't interact with each other.

* * *

"_What do you mean you don't know what it was?" I asked as I was hopping on one of my feet. _

_Kiritsugu looked suitable pale. Well, as pale as a dead man could with that much red covering his body could I guess. _

_A shuddering sigh came from his mouth. "It was at least the size of a bus, stood on eight legs and spoke through a white mask."_

"…_Alright." He confirmed there were in fact Hollows wandering throughout Fuyuki, only that they were more likely to exist in certain places. Probably because of the Shinigami wandering around town. They must be pretty good here then. No need to worry so much I guess. Still though, the number of pluses around didn't make any sense. I should have seen my parents at least after they died…_

* * *

Having taken Avalon from Irisviel left me with the thoughts of what else the crumbling family could possibly give me. Not very nice of me, I know, but rather perhaps a gift for Illya?

Well, I very much doubted that she would even be capable of utilising the Thompson Contender later on in her life even if she is half Homunculus. That could be useful later on. No idea what I'd do with it but meh, I'll think of something when it comes to it. Real good for killing shady Magi I'd imagine though.

On the other hand, since she is actually Kiritsugu's descendant it means that she would be capable of utilising his family crest. I couldn't use it because of the imminent rejection that I would suffer from because of the wholly unfamiliar circuits. The only reason the circuit transplants work in the first place was because of genetic and spiritual similarity between two people, that being in most cases the children of the one whom originally owned said circuits.

This house? Probably mine now. Illya has the castle out back in the forest and as long as we became friendly with each other I'd probably have no issue of her coming over whenever she liked. I don't think she'd think of this house as too great a loss. Something like the family crest on the other hand? She'd probably murder me for it.

In the meantime, however it would be good to find a way to preserve the family crest so I can give it to her later on down the track. Thankfully, Kiritsugu's body hadn't been cremated and was only buried in the back yard. Slightly morbid. Having someone buried in your backyard would probably freak out just about anyone with a sense of normalcy.

My eyes drifted off to the side where Kiritsugu was buried in the meantime, a mound of fresh dirt signifying where his body was placed…well, it couldn't hurt to try.

Placing my hand on the earthen mound I tried extending my senses downwards with my Bringer light, almost like I had done with Irisviel previously in the shed. It took a moment, but I found it, Kiritsugu's body, or more specifically, something that could be his crest. It certainly had this quality and feel to it that made it seem like the residual of a small soul from what limited experience I had with it so far.

Wrapping my own spirit energy around the crest I pulled and felt it move. It wiggled for a moment as it struggled to hold onto Kiritsugu's corpse, but a short quick tug later having made sure I had a firm and stable grasp on it, and it was free.

Floating in my palm was a near translucent button shaped object with roots of some kind dangling off the sides. They looked kind of like dendrites, the end effectors of nerves. It made sense really when thinking about it. The original FSN VN used Shirou's nerves a lot even though the idiot was doing the wrong thing because of Kiritsugu. Even if Shirou's use was wrong the description still compared Magic circuits to nerves.

Whatever. I have to figure out a way to store this in the meantime before I give it to Illya as a peace offering hopefully.

A spiritually reinforced jar?

Wouldn't hurt to try. There were bound to be a few things in the house I could use to contain this.

* * *

"Haha!"

Ok, I couldn't find a jar. The used freshwater Tuna can would have to do…I cleaned it! I swear!

"Kane." Rider's voice sounded off from behind me making me jump slightly. I hadn't sensed her sneaking up on me. "What are you doing?"

I turned around to see Rider with a slightly bemused look on her face.

"Uh…" did she see it? "Nothing?" Damn it! That sounded more like a question than an answer!

I winced when her smirk grew slightly, reaching over the top of me, momentarily distracting me when her chest hit my face and proceeded to press down. Well, what kind of straight guy was I to say no to this…Wait a second!

She pulled back a moment later and then it was only that I realised what she had done. Holding in her hand the can I had hidden the crest in she smirked again before rattling the can a little.

"This of course." She motioned, though her arm dropped to the side a moment later. "Though, given your inherent utter infatuation with my body and behaviour I can only assume that you are actually much older than most others would realise."

"…Uh." I had nothing…Wait, a dream sequence? Had she seen my memories!? That's forbidden! You don't need to know what porn I've seen! It's shameful! Though it involves Rider to some degree… Wait, no, those are doujins? Wait, it doesn't matter!

"You've seen my memories?" I ask hesitantly. All I could keep saying in my head though was 'Don't think about it!' over and over again.

"Yes, though, only on one occasion." Rider held the can up to her face to observe it again from behind her blindfold. "Your reaction now though only confirmed my suspicions. Ones I've had since our conversation about the Grail war in the café we visited back over in Shinto."

"Um, look I don't know what you've seen. But maybe best not to bring it up." I waved my hands around gesturing to the area around us. It was obvious that I didn't want out other company to find out.

"About the war you mean?" Rider then asked. That was a slight relief that she hadn't seen any of my other more…questionable memories. And the war could refer to the one we were currently participating in so it didn't really matter all too much. Or it could refer to the war I died in back home at the _other _place.

I frowned, "Lots of explosions, rubble everywhere?" I asked just to make sure and got a nod in return.

"My most probable scenario puts you as someone from an alternate reality whom was reincarnated here in this reality after you died in some kind of war." A slight frown graces riders face as she considers this. "The small glimpse of the technology you were using that I could see, put you decades ahead at least, of this Earths timeline. The only other assumption I could make out was that you were possibly from the future."

Just a single dream sequence and my personality and you got all of that?

I didn't see much point in hiding it at this point in time, as long as she didn't go off spouting about it to other people. "The first one…well, a bit of both really. Alternate reality, around twenty-twenty-five. World war three."

"…I see." Rider's tone implied that she understood to some degree what had happened. "How did you come across information on this realities Holy Grail War then?"

"Uhh…" I scratched the back of my head at that. Hoo boy. "Look, I can't tell you that," for hopefully obvious reasons, "and even if I did, the relevant information runs out at the end of this war and even then, most of it is now useless."

Thanks crossover universe. Asshole.

"The process can't be repeated either. It's physically impossible." As far as I was aware at least. "All I can say is that I trust you to get me through this war regardless of your past. It's a trait of yours that I picked up. You're reliable and a good person, no matter what you may think of yourself. None of what you did was under your absolute control and no one can fault you for that."

"I-I-" Rider stuttered momentarily, unable to control herself.

"Besides. Out of all of you, you're the most beautiful sibling." Rider started sputtering harder, and normally by now I would have started breaking down too just talking to a girl like this, but I was on a role and if I stopped now I don't think I'd physically be capable of finishing. "You have amazing curves and your sisters were probably jealous." Riders nose started leaking something… "Uhh…"

I'm sorry. Did Rider just break?

"…" Poor girl must have never received a complement like that before. She also wasn't moving very much…riiiiight…I'm just going to go to bed now. "Goodnight Rider." I waved back at her, equally as flushed as her. Complementing people like that was hard. Especially if I'd only recently met them. Normally I'd just call out someone's negative traits straight away and that would be the end of that.

I shivered remembering I'd called a girl fat to her face back in school. Not my brightest moment. Granted she didn't seem particularly phased by it, but she didn't look so happy either.

Anyway, bedtime, yeeeeeah…

* * *

**Word count: 5310**

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**Also, I changed something in the Hunter CODEX entry in the first interlude. Initially it was going to be a crossover addition with DC but then I realised, 'Zanka you idiot! You barely know anything about DC! Pick something else!'...And so I did.**

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**Servant stats updated!**

**Class: Rider**

**Name: Medusa **

**Status: Alive**

**Master: Kane ()**

**Status: Alive **

**STR: C -} B**

**END: D**

**AGI: A**

**MAN: B**

**LCK: E**

* * *

**REVIEWS:**

**CH 9:**

**Raidentensho:**

**Lucky guess...**

**Loser Stuck In Memory Lane:**

**That would be telling, though, a part of what you said isn't far off.**

**Maybe:**

**State ye wish and ye shall ****receive.**

**hideki667:**

**No, that can't happen at all. I don't think you remember bleach too well. The MC isn't a shinigami and as such CANNOT stab someone with a sword and transfer a part of his powers to them and make them a shinigami as well. The MC is a Fullbringer, powers for which are based on hollows not shinigami. The MC is more likely to eat Kiri than he is to give him powers.**

**CH 8:**

**Guest:**

**The reason Saber doesn't understand magic well is because she never had any interest and never bothered to learn anything from merlin. The official reason is that she didn't have the patience to sit around and learn it. That being said, if she had bothered she'd be an unparalleled magus with how powerful her circuits are.**

**CH 1:**

**Garatak:**

**While those are the stats she had with Sakura during the 5th HGW, her stats were actually an entire rank down in STR, END and AGI and a rank up in LCK when shinji was her master. The idea of lowering her stats here was that the MC had just awakened his magic circuits and was just getting them warmed up over a few days which would inhibit the stats of rider for that duration.**

**That being said, her stats have changed again.**

**Other REVIEWS:**

**Thank you for the continued support. I really appreciate the reviews.**


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